CENTS 



25 CENTS 



All About 
The IClondyke 

Gold Mines. 



''MILLIONS IJSl THEM,'' 

The complete story to date* Told by 
those who have been there* 



HOW TO REACH THE MINRbl 

What to do when you 
^^ The Necessary Out^ J 
Facts and Figure 




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ao Liberty Street, INew Vork. , 



25 CENTS 



25 CENTS 



THE BLANCHARD PRESS, 241-243 W. B'WAV, NEW VORK . 




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All About 



Ttil KLONDYKE 



Gold Mines. 




PUBLISHED BY 



THE MINERS' NEWS PUBLISHING CO., 

60 Liberty Street,;^New York. ; 

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16182 



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Copyrighted tS97 
By the miners* NEWS PUBLISHING CO. 



•9 



LOCATION OF THE YUKON MINES. 




MAP OF THE YUKON GOLD DIGGINGS. 

Sitka appears at the southeast corner of this map, and northeast of it is 
Juneau, the usual fitting out place for miners going to the Yukon. 

The arrows show the route of miners bound for the Yukon. Steamboats can 
carry them from Juneau as far as Ty-a. Then they must pack their loads through 
Chilkoot Pass and boat them through a chain of lakes and down the Lewis River 
to the Yukon. It is about 700 miles from Juneau to the Klondyke River. 

The two other most important centres of Yukon mining were Forty Mile 
Creek, where there were two big mining camps. Forty Mile and Fort Cudahy, and 
Circle City. All these camps have now been practically deserted in the great 
rush for the Klondyke. 

The ever reliable mid always triistii/orthy New York Sun publishes 
the map as given above. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Map of the Location of the Yukon Mine 5 

Gold — The Search for It, Past and Present 

Klondyke and California— 1849-1897 ••) 

The Geology of the Yukon 10 

The "Mother Lode" and the Glacial Deposits 10 

The Great Gold Discovery — How the First Authentic News Reached Us. .13 

The Gold Fever Spreading — The Stories of Some Miners 14 

Millions of Gold Panned Out — Poor Yesterday — Rolling in Wealth To- 
day 10 

Arrival of the Second Treasure Ship from the I^ondyke 19 

A Few of the Prizes Won 21 

Some Grapes of Eschol Stories — Richer than Sinbad's Valley of Diamonds. 22 

The Stampede for the Gold — Thousands Join the Exodus 24 

Where the Gold is Found — How It Is Reached and Mined 26 

Some Large Nuggets — There AreJ^ ore W here They Came From 29 

Millions Upon Millions in Sight — William Stanley's Graphic Story 29 

How to Get There— Choice of Two Routes 32 

From San Francisco to the Mines — Ocean Route 34 

Perils of the Trip — Encounters with Ice and Snow in the Passes 3.') 

The Canadian Government's Attitude — An InternationM^uestion 38 

Dawson Not a Tough Town — The Civilization of a Mining Camp 39 

Fears of Starvation — Danger of Going to the Mines Without Food Supply. 41 

Cost of Living in Dawson 43 

The Climate and the Mosquitoes — Short Summer — Heat Jind Cold Con- 
trasts 44 

Capital Required by Miners — Some Things Indispensable in an Outfit. .. .45 
Valuable Expert Advice — A Mining Engineer's Warnings and Sugges- 
tions 47 

Some Things Worth Knowing 55 

The New York Journal Expedition to Klondyke 50 

Sailors Get Gold Craze — Desert Their Ships in Alaskan Ports to Dig for 

Fortunes 50 

Only Three Deaths in a Year — The Healthiest Region in the World Is the 

Klondyke 51 

Canadian Mining Laws — Regulations Imposed by the Dominion Upon 

Placer Mining .52 

Explanatory ami Important 5<4 



THE KLONDYKE. 



GOLD. 



THE SEARCH FOR IT PAST AND PRESENT. 



Since the dawn of history man has attached to gold a value greater than 
that of any of the metals. Indeed, the value of every product of Mother 
Earth, of the fields, the forest or the mine has been fixed by its worth in gold. 
Hence the quest of gold has inspired mankind to acts of heroism, to a 
search for knowledge, and to a resignation to hardship and privation that 
have given to the explorer and prospector a character scarcely second to 
that of the heroes of the battlefield or the leaders of the world's senates. 
The history of the human race, even the record of the discovery of conti- 
nents, is largely a history of the search for the yellow treasure in its hiding 
places in the earth or among the elements of Nature. Columbus' voyage, 
which gave to the world America, with its California and now its 
EUondyke, was but a search for gold. Chemistry is only the offspring 
of alchemy, and while adventurous spirits were daring the main, suffering 
the torments of the tropics and the gloom of the wilderness, the hut and the 
cave of the hennit — man's first laboratories — were the scene of other labors 
and privations, and all in the search for gold, gold, whether in the ground, 
the water or the air. But it has remained to our own day to witness this 
quest extended to the region of eternal snow and rewarded among the gla- 
cial mountains of the frozen North. 



KLONDYKE AND CALIFORNIA. 



1849 AND 1897. 



As we are inclined to measure everything by comparison the discoveries in 
the Klondyke region and the already world-wide excitement created 
therebj naturally recall the discovery of gold in California, the memor- 
able year '49, and suggests a comparison of the facts and conditions exist- 
ing in and surrounding the two regions and the development of their re- 
spective resources. 

Ir '49 California was scarcely nearer to the civilization of the then ex- 



10 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

isting States of the Union than Klondyke is to-day. Though the climate of 
California, when reached, was salubrious in the extreme, the hardships 
of an overland trip of more than three thousand miles or the scarcely less 
trying voyage "around the Horn," were quite as apt to deter the "tender- 
foot" from attempting to seek fortune among the Sierras as are the ex- 
treme cold and possible privations that must be considered by the gold- 
hunters among the Alaskan mountains. But there were brave spirits in 
'49, who, defying every danger, flocked to the promised land, and realized 
not only their wildest dreams of wealth, but laid the foundation of one 
of the proudest among our galaxy of States. The population of the coun- 
try by the census of 1850, a year later, was but 20,000,000. If there wei-e 
thousands among those 20,000,000 who poured into California in '49, how 
much greater the influx into the region of the Klondyke will be if the 
same ratio of enterprise and adventure characterizes the 70,000,000 Ameri- 
cans of the present day. The first news of the discovery of gold in Cali- 
fornia was months in getting to "the States," and it was even months later 
before the gold fever had become really epidemic in the East. With the 
telegraph and cable of to-day the news from the Yukon has already en- 
cii-cled the globe and quickened the pulse of mankind in every land and 
latitude. 

There have been gold excitements at stated periods from the Eldorado 
of the Spaniards down to Johannisburg, but none that has arisen so sud- 
denly and spread so rapidly as that created by the tidings from Klondyke. 
Nor would it seem that the future of this excitement can be even con- 
jectured.' And perhaps the reason for this may be found in the fact that 
instead of the fables of an Eldorado, the reports from the Yukon have been 
shewn to be authentic and trustworthy. 



THE QEOLOQY OF THE YUKON REGION. 



THE "MOTHER LODE" AND THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS. 



Under the caption "How the Gold Came to Klondyke Placers," Professor 
George Frederick Wright, of Oberlin College, author of "Man in the Glacial 
Period" and other geological works, has contributed to the New York Jour- 
nal an interesting article in which he says: 

"The discovery of gold in large quantities on the Yukon River is by no 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. H 

means unexpected. Eleven years ago, the last word I heard as I left Juneau 
was the pledge of a returning tourist to meet his friend the next Summer 
and prospect in the Yukon region. 

"The great mass of gold-bearing quartz at the Treadwell mine, near 
Juneau, was what might be expected, and at the same time what might b* 
the limitation of the supply. For more than ten years that mine has fur- 
nished more than a million dollars of gold annually, but it is not like ordi- 
nary quartz mines. It is rather a great, isolated mass of quartz with gold 
disseminated all through it. While its worth is great, its length is limited. 
"Little is known about the geology of the Yukon River, where the Klon- 
dyke mines have been found. Being placer mines, the gold may have be€n 
transported many miles. The means of transportation are both glaciers and 
rivers. The Klondyke region is on the north side of the St. Elias Alps. 
Alaska was never completely covered with glacial ice. The glaciers flowed 
both north and south from these summits. Dawson and Professor Russell 
both report well defined terminal moraines across the upper Yukon Valley. 
The source of the Klondyke gold, therefore, is from the South. 

" Placer mines originate in the disintegration of gold-bearing quartz veins, 
or mass like that at Juneau. Under sub-aerial agencies these become dis- 
solved. Then the glaciers transport the material as far as they go, when the 
floods of water cany it on still further. Gold, being heavier than the other 
materials associated with it, lodges in the crevasses or in the rough places at 
the bottom of the streams. So to speak, nature has stamped and " panned " 
the gravel first and prepared the way for man to finish the work. The 
amount of gold found in the placer mines is evidence not so much, perhaps, 
of a very rich vein as of the disintegration of a very large vein. 

"The " mother lode " has been looked for in vain in California, and per- 
haps will be so in Alaska. But it exists somewhere up the streams on which 
the placer mines are found. The discovery of gold in glacial deposits far 
away from its native place is familiar to American geologists. 

"I have encountered placer mines in glacial deposits near Aurora, in 
Southeastern Indiana; in Adams County, in Southern Ohio, and near Titus- 
viile, in Western Pennsylvania, where, I see, there is a new excitement. But 
in all these cases the gold had been brought several hundred miles by glacial 
ice from Canada or the region about Lake Superior. These gold mines were 
near the edge of the glacial region, where there had been much assorting ac- 
tion of both ice and water. 

" It is evident, however, that in Alaska the transportation of the gold has 
not gone so far. The difliculties of this transportation into the Klondyke 
region and the shortness of the season will continue to be great drawbacks to 
working the mines. Tlie pass north of Chilcoot is 7,000 feet above sea level 
and but a few miles back from the ocean. There is no possibility of a road 



12 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

over it. But from Taku Inlet, near Juneau, readier access can be had. Thia 
route was followed by Schwatka and Mr. Hayes, of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey, a few years ago, and has been partially surveyed with refer- 
ence to a railroad line, and reported to be available. The only other way la 
by a river which is open to navigation only a short time each year and is a 
great way around. 

" The general climatic conditions on the north side of the mountains are 
much better than those on the south side. On the south side the snowfall is 
enormous, but on the north side the air is dryer. Schwatka and Hayes went 
in the Summer down the Yukon Valley about to the Klondyke region, and 
from there struck off west, passing to the north of Mount St. Elias and down 
the Copper River. They had dry weather all the time, in which camping 
was pleasant, while Russell the same season was driven back by inclement 
weather from ascending St. Elias on the south side. It is therefore not im- 
possible that explorations southwest of the present gold fields may be carried 
on with comparative ease. But at present that whole region is bare of means 
of subsistence. 

" There is imminent danger that many will get in there before Winter with 
insufficient means and starve. An English missionary and his wife have been 
in that general region for many years, and report the people as being so near 
the verge of starvation that they do not dare both to Winter in the same 
village lest they should produce a famine. So they live in separate villages 
during the Winter. Eventually the reindeer which Sheldon Jackson is intro- 
ducing into the lower Yukon region will be available both for transportation 
and food, being much superior to dogs in that they can procure their own 
food. But for the present every necessity must either be packed over the 
Chilcoot Pass or brought around by way of the Yukon. 

" As to the ultimate yield of the mines or the prospect of finding more, we 
have nothing but conjecture to go upon. The geologists who have visited the 
region were not the ones who discovered the gold. What the prospectors 
have found points to more. The unexplored region is immense. The moun- 
tains to the south "are young, having been elevated very much since the cli- 
max of the glacial period. With these discoveries and the success in intro- 
ducing reindeer Alaska bids fair to support a population eventually of sev- 
eral millions. The United States must hold on to her treaty rights with 
Great Britain for the protection of our interests there. If England accom- 
plishes her unreasonable designs she would shut us off from all communica- 
tion with the Klondyke region except by way of the Yukon." 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 13 

THE GREAT GOLD DISCOVERY. 



HOW THE FIKST AUTHENTIC NEWS REACHED US. 



Placer mining had been going on at Circle City and the settlement of 
Forty Mile for some time, and news of the wonderful productiveness of 
the mines there had reached the United States, but the gold fever did not 
become pronounced until the arrival in San Francisco, on the 14th of July 
of this year, of the steamer Excelsior with forty miners and gold dust val- 
ued at over $500,000. 

These forty miners were the first to bring the story of the almost fabulous 
richness of the new Klondyke mines near the Upper Yukon. One of the.se 
miners, J. C. Hestwood, who brought home $10,000 worth of gold as the 
result of two months' work, had this story to tell: 

"Circle City and Forty Mile have suffered the usual fate of mining camps 
which have petered out, only these camps have not petered out. When gold 
was found in such astonishing quantities on the tributaries of the Klondyke 
the whole population of those camps moved bodily to the junction of the 
Klondyke and Yukon rivers, where Dawson City is established. This dis- 
trict, the richest placer country in the world, was discovered by an old hun- 
ter named McCormick, who has a squaw for a wife and several half-breed 
children. McCormick went up in the spring of 1896 to the mouth of the 
Klondyke to fish, as salmon weighing ninety pounds are caught where this 
stream meets the Yukon. The salmon didn't run as usual and McCormick, 
hearing from the Indians of rich placers nearby where gold could be washed 
out in a frying pan, started in to prospect. 

"Near what is now Dawson City he struck very rich pay dirt in a side 
hill. As soon as news of his discovery spread men from Circle City and Forty 
Mile rushed in. The richest claims are in Bonanza Creek, which empties in- 
to the Klondyke three miles above Dawson City. There are three claims in 
that district, each 500 feet long, extending clear across the creek on which it 
is located. No one can file an additional claim until he has recorded his 
abandonment of his old claim. 

"In the adjoining Bunker district there are 200 claims. The two districts 
have been well prospected, but further up the Klondike is much territory 
which has never been travelled over. 

"Old miners declared that the north side of the Yukon was worthless, so 
no prospecting was done until McCormick started in. There is no claim- 
jumping, as the Canadian laws are rigid and well enforced. The rich pay 
dirt is only struck near bed rock and this generally lies from eighteen to 
twenty-five feet below the surface. 

"The method of mining is to remove the surface mass, which is eighteen 



14 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

inches thick, and then build a fire which burns all night. In the morning 
the gravel is shaved down about two feet. This is shovelled out, and an- 
other fire is built, and in this slow and laborious way the ground is removed 
to bedrock. This work can be carried on all winter, except when the mer- 
cury falls below 60 degrees. 

"Dawson City is a booming town of about 3,000 inhabitants and is grow- 
ing every week. Provisions were scarce and dear last winter, and all sup- 
plies are costly. An ordinary 75-cent pocket knife sells for $4, and shoes 
bring from $6 to $8. A dog-sledgeload of eggs was brought in last winter 
from Juneau. About half were sp(nlcil. but the whole lot sold readily at $4 
per dozen. Flour sold as high as $1 a pound." 

Mr. Hestwood showed many small nuggets from the new Bonanza Creek 
district, where his mine is situated. The gold is the color of brass, and is 
worth $16 to $17 an ounce. It isn't as pure gold as found elsewhere on 
the Yukon. 



THE GOLD FEVER SPREADING. 



THE STOKIES OF SOME MINERS. 



The stories of the returned miners, telegraphed from San Francisco all 
over the country and to the ends of the earth on the evening of the 14th of 
July, v/ere what started the gold fever, and the craze to go in search of 
the precious metal that is now raging from one end of the country to 
the other. Soon after the arrival of the Excelsior, the half million dollars 
\\'orth of yellow dust, which ranged in size from a hazelnut to fine bird- 
shot and kernels of sand, was poured out on the counter at Selby's smelt- 
ing works on Montgomery street and then shovelled with copper scoops 
into the great melting pot. Those who saw the gold in one heap said no 
such spectacle had been seen since the days of '49, when miners used to 
come down from the placer districts and change their gold for $20 pieces. 

The luckiest of these miners are Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Lippey, who left 
here in April, 1896. They brought back $60,000. They went in by way of 
Juneau over the divide, and Mrs. Lippey was the first woman to go over 
this trail. She is a small, wiry woman, with skin tanned to the color of 
sole leather. She seemed none the worse for the hardships of Yukon life. 
She is a good rifle shot, and brought with her the antlers of a moose which 
she had shot. 

HoUinshead and Stewart, two miners, who had been at work for a year, 



THK KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 15 

had 1,500 ounces, worth about $25,000. Other tenderfeet had done better, 
for in a few weeks some of them had cleaned up from $10,000 to $15,000. 
Several of the men had bought claims on time, paying a small sum down 
and agreeing to pay all the way from $10,000 to $25,000 in three to six 
months. Most of them cleaned up enough gold in a month to pay for 
their claims and still have a good sum left over. 

When the men arrived in San Francisco they found the United States 
mint closed for the day, and so they carried their sacks of gold to the 
oflSce of Selby's smelting works. They were weather-beaten and roughly 
dressed, but the spectators forgot their appearance when they began to 
produce sacks of gold dust ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 in value. Some 
of the sacks were regular buckskin bags, well made; others were of can- 
vas, black and grimy from long handling with dirty fingers. As fast as 
the bags were weighed they were ripped open with a sharp knife and the 
contents were poured out on the broad counter. Then some of the miners 
produced from bundles and coat pockets glass fruit jars and jelly tumblers 
filled with gold dust and covered with writing paper, carefully secured with 
twine. It seems that the supply of gold bags ran out and this was the only 
way to bring the treasure down. 

When all the gold dust was poured out it made a nice heap, on which 
the spectators gazed as though fascinated; but the smelting men calmly 
scraped it up and cast the yellow dust into a big pot, which was wheeled 
into the smelting room. 

A letter from one of the officials of the Alaska Commercial Company, 
at Circle City, gives this account of the great rush to the new diggings: 

"The excitement on the river is indescribable, and the output of the 
new Klondyke district is almost beyond belief. Men who had nothing 
last fall are now worth a fortune. One man has worked forty square feet 
of his claim and is going out with $40,000 in dust. One-quarter of the 
claims are now selling at from $15,000 to $50,000. The estimate of the dis- 
trict is given as thirteen square miles, with an average of $300,000 to the 
claim, while some are valued as high as $1,000,000 each. A number of 
claims have been purchased for large sums on a few months' credit, and 
the amount has been paid out of the ground before it became due. 

"At Dawson sacks of gold dust are thro\vn under the counters in the 
stores for safekeeping. The peculiar part of it is that most of the loca- 
tions were made by men who caaiie in last year, old-timers not having had 
faith in the indications until the value of the region was assured, where- 
upon prices jumped so high that they could not get in. Some of the stories 
are so fabulous I am afraid to repeat them for fear of being suspected of 
the infection. 

"There are other discovorios reported a little beyond and on the Stewart 
River, but these have not yet been verified. 



16 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

MILLIONS OF GOLD PANNED OUT. 



POOR YESTERDAY— ROLLING IN WEALTH TO-DAY. 



The San Francisco correspondent of the New York Sun, who saw the 
arrival of the Excelsior, sent to his paper by wire a graphic description of 
the sensation created. He said: 

"San Francisco has not been stirred by any mining discovery since the 
opening up of the great bonanzas on the Comstock Lode in Nevada, nearly 
thirty years ago, as it has been by the stories of two score sun-tanned and 
hard-featured miners who have returned from the new Klondyke camp on 
the Yukon River in far Alaska. 

These stories would have excited derision were it not that all these men 
were able to furnish ocular proof of their tales with pounds of yellow gold. 
Not one of the party went into this camp last Fall with anything more than 
his outfit and a few hundred dollars. Not one came out with less than 
$5,000, a dozen cleaned up from $10,000 to $20,000, while half a dozen aver- 
aged from $20,000 to $90,000. Scores of them left claims that they valued at 
$20,000 to $1,000,000, which are now being worked by their partners or by 
hired laborers. They are not boasters nor boomers. In fact, they are careful 
to warn any one about venturing into the Yukon country unless he is 
young, vigorous and brave, able to bear hardships, and has from $500 to 
$1,000 for outfit and current expenses after reaching the new gold fields. 
• Perhaps it is these very conservative views which have made their talk take 
such powerful hold on the popular imagination. 

All returned miners agree that the best way to reach the new gold fields is 
by way of Juneau. The journey is mainly by land over a snow-covered 
trail, down numerous streams and across lakes. The only very dangerous 
place is Chilicoot Pass, which is dreaded because of the sudden snowstorms 
that come up without warning and that have proved fatal to many adven- 
turous miners. The distance is 650 miles, and it takes an average of twenty- 
five days to cover it. 

Dawson City has now a population of nearly 3,000. It is beautifully sit- 
uated on the banks of the Yukon near the mouth of the Klondyke River, and 
seems destined to become the mining centre of the Northwest territory. The 
people now live in shanties, each built of a few strips of weather boarding 
and canvas. There is a sawmill in operation day and night, but it cannot 
supply the demand for its products. Lumber sells at the mill for $150 per 
thousand, but when delivered at mines the price jumps to $450. 

One of the peculiar features of the new camp is the lack of shooting, due 
to the fact that the Canadian Goverimient does not permit men to carry 
firearms. Police disarm miners when they enter the district, so that there 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 17 

is not any of the lawlessness and crime which marked early placer mining in 
California. There is much gambling, and play is high. An old miner, 
Alexander Orr, who spent eight Winters in Alaska, but will not return, 
said: 

"Dawson is not like most of the large mining camps. It is not a tough 
town; murders are almost unknown. The miners are a quiet, peaceable 
kind of men, who have gone there to work and are willing that everybody 
else shall have an equal chance with themselves. A great deal of gambling 
is done in town, but serious quarrels are the exception. As a gambling town 
I think it is equal to any I have ever seen, and this, by the way, is always 
the test of a mining camp's prosperity. Stud poker is the usual game. 
They play $1 ante, and often bet$300 or $500 on the third card." 

Orr sold out his claim for $20,000, and the men who bought it made the 
purchasd money in four months. Perhaps the best idea of m hat has been 
'd)one ,in<' tlie new camp can be gainetl from the following short interviews 
with returned miners: 

William Kulju said: "I brought down just 1,000 ounces of dust and sold 
it to smelting works. I worked at Eldorado Creek, near Dawson, and was 
in that countiy about a year, and had a couple of dollars and a pack last 
Summer when I went in. I sold my claim for $25,000, part cash and the 
balance to be paid as it is taken out. No\y I am taking a trip to the old 
country — Finland — and am coming back next year." 

Fred Lendeseen: "I went to Alaska two years ago, and when I left there 
six weeks ago I brought $13,000 in gold dust with me. I have had consid- 
erable experience in mining, and say without hesitation that Alaska is the 
richest country I have ever seen. I have interest in a claim near Dawson 
and am going back in the Spring." 

Greg Stewart: "I had a partner and I sold out my interest for $45,000 
and put my money back again at interest in mines. My partner had 1,500 
ounces of dust, but it fell short four ounces on the way down. The dust 
will go over $17 an ounce, but we are all waiting for returns from the 
smelting works. I brought a few hundred ounces with me, but I get inter- 
est of 2 per cent, on short loans. I expect to return next Spring." 

John Marks: "I brought $11,500 in gold dust with me, but I had to work 
for every bit of it. There is plenty of gold in Alaska— more, I believe, than 
the most sanguine imagine — but it cannot be obtained without great effort 
and endurance. The first thing for a poor man to do when he reaches the 
country is to begin prospecting. As snow is from two to five feet deep 
prospecting is not easy. Snow must first be shoveled away, and then a fire 
built on the ground to melt the ice. As the ground thaws the shaft must 
be ssnk until bed rock is reached. Tlie average prospector has to sink a 
great many shafts before he reaches anything worth his while. If gold is 



18 THE KLONDYKE GOLD IkllNES. 

found in sufllcient quantities to pay for working, he may begin drifting 
from tJw? sliaftj and contintie to do so as long as lie finds enoiigh gold to 
pay." 

f -Albert Fox: '"I and partner went into the district in 1805 and secured two 
'claims. We sold one for $45,000. I brouglit 300 ounces, wliich netted $5,000. 
Everybody is at Dawson for the present. Tlie district is apt to be overrun. 
I wouldn't advise anyone to go there this Fall, for people are liable to go 
hungry before spring. About 800 went over tlie summit from Juneau, GOO 
miles, so there may not be food enougli for all." 

Robert Kooks : "I've been four years in Alaska. I had a half int<»rest in a 
claim on Eldorado Creek, and sold out to my partner for $12,000. I 
bought a half interest in a claim on the Bonanza, below the Discovery 
claim, and my share is worth easily $15,000. I brought $14,000 in gold 
dust, and shall return in the Spring, after rest and recreation." 

J. B. Hollinshead: "I was in the diggings about two years, and brought 
out about 1,500 ounces, which I suppose will bring $17 an ounce. I'm not 
sure about going back, though I have a claim on Gold Bottom Creek, fifteen 
miles from Bonanza. It is less than a year since I located my claim. My 
dust will bring over $25,000." 

M. S. Korcross: "I was sick and couldn't work, so I cooked for Mr. 
McNamee. Still I had a claim on the Bonanza, but didn't know what was 
in it, because I couldn't work it. I sold out last spring for $10,000 and was 
satisfied to get a chance to return to my home in Los Angeles." 

Thomas Flack: "My dust will bring more than $6,000. I have an interest 
in two claims on the Eldorado. One partner sold out for $50,000 and an- 
other for $55,000. I had an offer of $50,000. but refused it just before 1 
came out." 

Thomas Cook: "It is a good country, but if there is a rush there's going 
to be a great deal of suffering. Over 2,000 men are there at present, and 2,000 
more will be in before snow falls. I've been at placer mining for years in 
California and British Columbia, and the mines at Dawson are more exten- 
sive and beyond anything I ever saw. Last year I did veiy well at Dawson. 
I have a claim worth about the average, they say from $25,000 to $50,000, 
on Bear Creek, across the divide from the Bonanza." 

Con Stamatin: "I was mining on shares with a partner. He's still there. 
We worked on Alexander McDonald's ground in Eldorado for forty-five 
days and took out $33,000. We got 50 per cent, and the other half went to 
McDonald. Then we divided our share, and I came away." 

All minei-s unite in saying that the only fear for the coming winter is 
the lack of supplies. The Alask.a Commercial Company promises, however, 
to send in all that is needed. Living is high now, as may be seen from these 
quotations of prices when the miners st^irted for home: Flour, $12 per hun- 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 19 

dredweight; (following are the prices per pound) moose ham, $1; caribou 
meat, 65 cents; beans, 10; rice, 25; sugar, 25; bacon, 40; potatoes, 25; tur- 
nips, 15; coffee, 50; dried fruits, 35; tea, $1; tobacco, $1.50; butter, a roll, 
$1.50; eggs, a dozen, $1.50; salmon, each, $1 to $1.50; canned fruits, 50 
cents; canned meats, 75; liquors, per drink, 50; shovels, $2.50; picks, $5; 
coaJ oil, per gallon, $1; overalls, $1.50; underwear, per suit, $5 to $7.50; 
shoes, $5; rubber boots, $10 to $15. 

Miners who have reached San Francisco do not act like people who have 
suddenly jumped from poverty to comparative wealth. They are level 
headed. They went to the best hotels, and they are living on the fat of the 
hand, but thej' do not throw money away, and not one stai-ted in to paint 
the town red. They have worked so hard that they apprpeciate the value 
of money. "What they deliglit in most are theatres and other amuseraent.s. 
They say no one knows how to enjoy these if he has not spent a year iu 
Alaska. Three-quarters of the miners will return in tlie Spring wlien they 
are well rested. 



ARRIVAL OF THE SECOND TREASURE SHIP FROH THE 
FROZEN KLONDYKE. 



When the first stories of the fniitfulness of the "Far Off Land" came to the 
ears of the children of Israel there were many doubters, but when tlirf«,i- who 
had been sent to spy out the land i-aiiie l)a(k later bearing great buii(lie> of 
grapes there were none that douhtetl. So wlioii tiie Kxcelsior arrived in San 
Francis<'0, on the 14th of 'inly, many may have doubted the truth of the 
stories told of tlie richness of tiie new gold tiehls, but when, three days later, 
the Portland st^ninied into Seattle witli gold to the value of over .$l,()0O.(MMl, 
brought from the region of the I'pper Yukon, no one who saw with iheir 
own eyes the gold, and who lieard wilii tiieir own ears the tales of mineral 
riches unsurpassed, could doubt that on the banks of the Klondyke had been 
discovered the worlds greatest gold li«'lds. An eye witness of the scenes oi 
the Portland's arrival thus tells the story in the New York Journal: 

(^old in boxes, gold in bags, gold in bianket.s, line gold and coarse gold, 
gold nuggets and gold dust, tlie yellow treasure of the Klouilyke diggings, 
came from the far North. 

A ton and a half of gold was a ])art of the load of the steamer Portland 
from St. Michaels, Alaska, and with tlie liXMW pounds of gold were the aev- 



20 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

era! owners, sixty-eight miners, some with $5,000, some with $10,000, some 
with $50,000, a few with $100,000 and over, but all with gold. 

With the product of their work for a season in the new "diggings," the 
richest in surface gold ever discovered, these miners had made the long voy- 
age from Dawson City, the new golden town, 1,895 miles down the Yukon to 
St. Michael's, and at St. Michael's liad boarded the Portland with their treas- 
ure, bound for homeland and intent upon changing their dust and their nug- 
gets into the minted, milled coin of their country. 

On the voyage the gold was stored in the captain's state room. The little 
safe in the corner was packed full of bags of gold, and the remainder that 
the safe would not hold was placed in three boxes. 

When the steamer came to the port the miners put their bags on their 
shoulders and walked down the gang plank in the presence of a vast throng 
of Seattle people assembled to see the great pile of treasure from the rich 
fields of the far North. A miner with only $5,000 in his bag easily carried 
his fortune. Twenty thousand dollars in two bags is a good load for any 
stalwart man, no matter if he has worked where the mercury falls to sixty 
degrees below zero. Two men used all their strength in carrying a strapped 
blanket, in which was about $50,000. The few with the big fortunes, 
$100,000 and over, had to hire help to get their precious possessions to a safe 
place of storage in Seattle. 

The greater part of the ton and a half of gold was taken from the ground 
during three Winter months. Last Fall some green strangers, "tenderfeet," 
fresh from the comforts of civilization, were so absurd as to give no heed to 
the advice of the old miners. The pioneers of the Yukon mines, the men who 
know Circle City and Forty Mile Creek and all the surrounding country, said 
there was no use looking for gold "over yonder on the Klondyke." But the 
foolish strangers went "over yonder on the Klondyke." During the Fall the 
news reached the older diggings of the amazing discoveries of gold by these 
absurd tourists from the South, and from all the country round about came 
the rush to Klondyke. 

^Vhen gold is waiting to be lifted out of the ground cold is not to be con- 
sidered. During the dark Winter days the temperature, 30 or 40 degrees 
below zero, the quest for dust and nuggets was pursued continually. The 
product of the work of some of these Winter miners, defiant of the cold, is 
shov^Ti in the treasure brought to the United States by the Portland and the 
Excelsior. 

The greatest fortune gained by any of the company of miners is the honey- 
moon treasure of Clarence Berry, of Fresno, Cal. He brought $135,000 in 
dust and nuggets. In 1890 young Berry went to the Yukon country, and 
for several years he prospected along Forty-Mile Oieek and other placer fields 
without success. Last Summer he returned to California, manied, and took 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 21 

his bride with him to the North. Instead of remaining in Alaska he went 
over the boundary line into British possessions, and on the Klondyke he 
struck the richest pocket that was discovered. He said that the principal 
part of his $135,000 came from three hundred "box lengths." A "box length" 
is fifteen feet long and twelve feet wide. In one length he found a pocket of 
$10,000. In another length was a nugget weighing thirteen ounces, next to 
the largest found in the diggings. Mr. Berry deemed his fortune sufficient 
for the present, and is taking his bride to his home in Fresno, where, in the 
July temperature of 110 above, she may find compensation for the 58 below 
of January on the Yukon. 

One of the foolish strangers who gave no consideration to the advice of the 
old miners in Frank Phiscater. Last Autumn he went from Borada, Mich., 
to Alaska and thence to Klondyke. He was one of the first to discover gold 
in the fabulously rich placers of the new El Dorado. He employed nine men 
and in three months' time took out from two claims $96,027. He still owns 
the claims, but having nearly $100,000 made in less than twelve months he 
deems himself entitled to a trip t6 Michigan. 



A FEW OF THE PRIZES WON. 



'J HEY HAVE MADE THEIR PILE AND BROUGHT IT HOME. 



Clarence J. Berry $135,000 

W. Stanley 115,000 

F. Phiscater 92,000 

F. G. H. Bowker 90,000 

T. S. Lippy 60,000 

K. B. Hollingshead 25,500 

.R. McNulty 20,000 

Wm. Kulju 17,000 

Joe Mamue 10,000 

James McMann 15,000 

Albert Galbraith 15,000 

Neil MacArthur 15,000 

D. MacArthur 15^000 

Ber. Anderson 14 qoo 

Robert Krook 14 qqq 



THE KLONDYKE COLD MINES. 

Fred Lentlessi^- 13,000 

Alexander On 11,500 

Jolm Marks 11,500 

Thomas Cook 10,000 

M. S. Norcross 10,000 

J. Ernmergcr 10,000 

" Con Staniatiii S.250 

Alhcrt Fox 5,100 

Greg Stewarl 5,000 

J. O. Hestwood 5,000 

Thomas Flaclv o.OOO 

Louis B. Khoads 5,000 

Fred "Rice 5.000 



SOHE GRAPES OF ESCHOL STORIES. 



RICHER THAN SINBAD'S VALLEY OF DIAMONDS. 



Among the Portland's passengers was William Stanley, of Seattle, for- 
merely a blacksmith, who went into the country two years ago last spring- 
He returned with $115,000 in gold nuggets and dust. His claim is on the 
Bonanza Creek, emptying into the Klondyke five miles above Dawsoa 
City, the headquarters of the camp. Clarence Beriy, formerly a farmer of 
Fresno, Cal., brought back seven sacks, containing .$135,000. Clarence 
Berry, of Los Angeles, went to the Y^ukon in 1894. 

"My luck was bad for three years. Last fall I came out and married, 
and when I went back I heard of the Klondyke. I was early on the 
ground, locating, with other parties, three claims on Eldorado Creek. We 
struck it rich. That's all tliere is to tell. 

"Last winter I took out $130,000 in thirty box lengths. Another time the 
second largest nugget ever found in the Y'likon was taken out of my 
claim. It weighed thirteen ounces and was worth $213. I have knowu 
men to take out $1,000 a day from a drift claim. Of course the gold waa 
found in pockets, and those finds, you can rest assured, were very scarce. 
I would not advise a nuxn to tiike in an outfit that would cost less thaia 
$600. 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 23 

1 he couiitiy is wild, roiij^li and full of hardships for those unused to 
iijc rigors of Arctic winter. Jf ii man makes a fortune he is liable to earn 
it by .severe hardships and sulTerinj^s, but then grit, perseverenee and 
luck will probably reward hard work with a eomfortable income for life." 

Henry Anderson, a native of S\\<'den and well known on the Lound, 
«)ld a one-half interest in his claim on Eldorado Creek and ha.s come back 
to Seattle with $4r),()()() sjxjt cash, the procee<is of the sale. T. J. Kelly and 
pon, of Tacoma, went in last year and made $10,000. The son is in charge 
of the claim and tii(! father was among the Portland's passengers. 

Frank Keller, of Los An\reles was one of the Portland's passengers. ,He 
wfnt in last year, mined during the winter, and la.st year sold the claim 
for $35,000. William Sloat, formerly a dry-g<M)ds merchant, of Lanimo, 
B. C, sold his claim for $.)2.000, and, with the gold he took from the mine, 
came back on the Portland. Another man named Wilkenson, of the same 
city, swld his claim for $40,000. Frank Phi.scater, of IJaroda, Mich., re- 
turned with $!)0,000, the result of his labors in Miles. Capt. Strickland, of 
the Canadian mounted police, who is en route to Ottawa on official busi- 
ness, is among the arrivals. He says: 

"When I left Dawson City about a month ago there were about 800 
claims staked out and between 2,000 and 3,000 people. We can safely say 
that there was $1,500,000 in gold mined last winter. Wages in mines 
were $15 a day, and the sawimill i)aid laborers $10 a day with claims now 
staked, but will alTord employment for about 5,000, I believe. If a man is 
strong and healthy and wants to work he can find employment at good 
wages. Several men workeil on an interest, or what is termed a lay, and 
during the winter realizeil from $5,000 to $10,000. The mines are from 3-t 
to 100 miles from Alaska boundary."' 

•J. Kellar, who pronounced it the richest gold country in the world, 
said: 

"It was 08 degrees below zero last winter, and the ground was frozen to 
the depth of forty feet. The snow doesn't fall to any great depth, three 
feet being the greatest, and that was light and fleecy frost. All the gold is 
tiiken out of giavel by thawing in the summer. There are nine months of 
winter. We left Daw.son City on a river steamer on June 19, and were 
eight days reaching St. Michael's, 1,800 miles. The weather in Klondyke 
was warm and sultry, nuu'h warmer than it seemed, and mosquitos were 
in myriads. They are in the water one drinks. They give a man no rest 
day or night. 1 am satisfied to stay away from Klondyke, although I 
did well. 

"It is a horrible country to live in, but it is extremely healthy. Every 
man is on his good behavior, and, for a mining country, has as good, or- 
derly, law-abiding citizens as I ever saw. At present there is no prospect- 
jng going on, all men in tlie country being employed at $12 or $15 a day, 



24 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

or are working on their own claims. Tliere is a big country open to pros- 
pectors." 

Tom Cochrane, a grocery clerk, staked one of the Klondyke miners with 
$300 worth of supplies eighteen months ago. His dividend received on 
the Portland was $41,000. 

Victor Lord, a western Washington logger, spent four years in the Yu- 
kon He made $10,000 last winter in six weeks on the Klondyke, work- 
ing a claim on shares. He will return after spending the summer here. 
Alexander Menzie, of Arizona, was a miner before he werit into the Klon- 
dyke this spring. He located two claims on Indian Creek, and after three 
weeks' work brought out $7,000. "I have mined for thirty years in Cali- 
fornia, Arizona and Nevada," he said to-night. "The Klondyke country is 
richer than any placer district in the world. I own two claims on Indian 
Creek and will return in the spring in time to sled over the mountains into 
Klondyke from Dyea." 

Harry Olson received $60,000 for his interest in a claim on Eldorado. 
His wealth is in sacks, like that of the others. He is a California farmer, 
and left for his old home, from which he departed three years ago. 

The miners left Dawson City June 19 and were seven days on the trip 
by steamer down the Yukon to St. Michael's. After another week's rest 
they sailed on July 3 on the steamship Portland. 

Inspector Strickland says that complete order is maintained in the 
camp by the Canadian mounted police .Little disorder prevails, but this 
may have changed since the departure of the Portland party, as the Alaska 
Commercial Company sent 10,000 gallons of whiskey into the camp on 
Juno 1. 

There is a great scarcity of lumber and the single sawTnill is kept busy 
day and night supplying the camp with lumber. The camp is a typical 
specimen of the frontier anining village, without regular streets. It 
straggles up the Klondyke for tkree miles, and then the houses are found 
at intervals of a quarter of a mile. 



THE STAMPEDE FOR THE GOLD. 



THOUSANDS JOIN THE EXODUS. 



To say that the news from the north brought by passengers of the Ex- 
celsior and confirmed by those of the Portland swept over the Pacific coast 
with the rapidity of a prairie fire would be to make use of an inadequate 
simile. In less t han forty-eight hours hundreds were busy arranging their 
affairs so as to depart by the first steamer for the new Eldorado. On the 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 25 

18th of July, only four days after the amval of the Excelsior, the offices of 
the Alaska Commercial Company in San Francisco were beseiged by men, 
and even women, all anxious to secure a passage, and on the same day it 
Mas stated by an officer of the company that their steamers would not be 
able to carry one-tenth of those desirous of starting from that port alone. 
The same official estimated that before the end of the month the number of 
those who would set out from San Francisco would reach fully 5,000. Hun- 
dreds with means sufficient to buy tickets and outfits fairly tumbled over 
each other to secure these. Others sought capital by offering one-half their 
winnings to those who would stake them. Syndicates were speedily formed, 
'grub stakes" offered and parties of tens, twenties and even hundreds or- 
ganized for the venture. The reported danger of famine, even the warnings 
of returned miners seemed to deter no one. 

While such was the craze in San Francisco, the excitement was no less in 
Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and all along the Pacific coast. Nor did it end 
here. The same excitement swept Eastward and prevailed to a greater or 
less extent everywhere. The press of the country gave publicity to every 
scrap of news, corps of correspondents were organized and "hurried to the 
front," and even the "special artist on the spot" was not "left out in the 
cold," whatever he may suffer when. he reaches a latitude where the mer- 
cury coquettes with the 80s. and 90s. below zero. All sorts of advertise- 
ments from all sorts of people, offering almost any terms and conditions to 
a backer, appeared, and, as we write, are still appearing in the daily papers. 
The one subject of conversation in the s^ell clubs, no less than on the street 
cornei-s, is the news from Alaska, and the region of the Klondyke and the 
Yukon River have suddenly become as familiar geographical designations 
as Brooklyn or the Hudson. 

Perhaps no more reliable authority could be given as to the great re- 
sources of the Klondyke and the excitement prevailing in and about that 
region than Capt. Francis Tuttle, commander of the revenue cutter Bear. 
Writing to a friend in New York from St. Michael's on the Yukon River, 
the Captain says: 

"The days of '49 in California are a mere side show compared with the 
excitement in the Yukon country. Imagine my astonishment on reaching 
here yesterday to run across a man who, last September, was discharged as a 
deck hand from a steamer on Paget Sound. The fellow made his way into 
Alaska, worked seven months on the Klondyke and has now reached St. 
Michael's with $150,000 in gold. 1 could hardly believe my senses, but there 
was his gold, sure enough. 

"As I write St. Michael's is full of miners awaiting an opportunity to get 
down to Puget Sound and to California. Nearly every other man of thera 
has $50,000 worth of dust, and there is not a man here with less than $15,- 



26 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

000. The latter are referred to as 'poor fellows' who have been hard hit with 
bad luck, and it seems to be real sympathy that the more fortunate one* 
show for these $15,000 fellows. 

"The deck hand, with his $150,000, had the largest amount of gold of any 
one in the crowd. The whole business is almost incredible, yet one must 
believe what he sees. 

"It is enough to turn the mind of any person, and particularly when one- 
learns with wliat comparative ease this gold is mined." 

As we M-rite several ^t^amers having already departed from various Pacific 
ports, are on their way to the Yukon, all freighted to their fullest capacity 
with gold hunters, provisions and mining outfits. Others are following a'* 
rapidly as they can be outfitted, and scarcely a s<niworthy craft available for 
the purpose can be found that has not already been brought into requisition. 

This stream of humanity that has suddenly turned northward and is being 
constantly swollen as it proceeds on its way is made up of all classes of men 
and from every condition in life. The experienced and rugged miner is ac- 
companied by the "tenderfoot." The soft-handed clerk falls in line with the 
tanned and strong-muscled out-of-door laborer. Even the professional man 
has abandoned his comfortable office for the miner's hut. The first steamer 
to leave numbered among her passengers the venerable poet of the Sierras, 
Joaquin Miller. Another steamer, sailing from Seattle on July 22, carried 
north ex-Governor jNIcGraw, Avho for many years was president of the Firs.t 
National Bank, of Seattle; Governor of Washington for four years ending 
January last, and later a candidate for United States Senator to succeed W. 
S. Squire. Among his companions du voyage were General M. E. Carr, for- 
merly Brigadier General of the State militia, and ^^■hose law practice is the 
largest in the State of Washington, and Captain A. J. Balliet, at one time 
Y'ale's greatest oarsman and football player, who also leaves a handsome law 
practice to seek gold on the Y^ukon. 



WHERE THE GOLD IS FOUND. 



HOW IT IS REACHED AND MINED. 



Dr. William H. Dall, one of the curators of the National Museum, i* 
familiar with the region of country in which the Klondyke gold fields are 
located, through having been on several geological expeditions to the region 
in Alaska adjoining the gold district, and says that in his opinion the reports 
from tliere probably are not exaggerated. 

"When I was there," he says, "I did not find gold, but knew of it being 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 27 

taken out in profitable quantities for fifteen years or more. It \va.s first dis- 
covered there in 186G. In 1880, when I was up in that country, the first 
party of prospectors wlio have made mining profitable, started out. The gold 
is found on the various tributaries of the Yukon, and 1 have been within u 
comparatively short distance of the Klondyke lields. 1 made one trip to 
Circle City, just over the boundary of Canada. 

"The gold bearing belt of Northwestern America contains all the gold 
tields and e.xtends into that part of British Columbia known as the North- 
western Territorj' and Alaska. The Yukon really runs along in that belt for 
500 or 600 miles. The bed of the main river i.s in the lowlands of the valley. 

"The yellow metal is not found in paying quantity in the main river, but 
in the small streams which cut through the mountains on either side. These 
practically wash out the gold. The mud and mineral matter is carried into 
the main river, while the gold is left on the rough bottoms of these side 
streams. In most ca.ses the gold lies at the bottom of thick gravel deposits. 
The gold is covered by frozen gravel in the Winter. During the Summer, 
until the .snow is all melted, the surface is covered by muddy torrents. 
"When the snow is all melted and the springs begin to freeze the streams dry 
up. At the the approach of Winter, in order to get at the gold the miners 
find it necessary to dig into the gravel formation. 

"Formerly they stripped the gravel off until they came to the gold. Now 
they sink a shaft to the bottom of the gravel and tunnel along underneath 
in the gold bearing layer. The way in which this is done is interesting, as it 
has to be cairied on in cold weather, when everytliing is frozen. 

"The miners build fires over tlie area where they wish to work and keep 
these lighted over that territory for the space of twenty-four hours. Then, 
at the e.vpiration of this period, tlie gravel will be melted and softened to a 
depth of perhaps six inches. This is then taken off and other fires built 
until the gold-bearing layer is reached. When the shaft is down that far 
other fires are built at the bottom, against the sides of the layer, and tun- 
nels made in this manner. 

"Blasting would do no good, on account of the hard nature of the material, 
and would blow out just as out of a gun. The matter taken out containing 
the gold is piled up until Spring, when the torrents come down, and is 
panned and cradled by these. It is certainly very hard labor. 

"I see many reasons why the gold fields should be particularly rich. The 
streams which cut through the mountains have probably done so for cen- 
turies, wearing them down several hundred feet and washing out the gold 
into the beds and gravel. 

"It is a country in which it is very hard to lind food, as tliere is practically 
Bo game. Before the wliites went into the region there were not more than 



28 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 



300 natives. They have liaid work to support themselves, on account of the 
scarcity of game." 

An interesting letter telling of the recent trip of the steamer Excelsior has 
been written by Captain J. F. Higgins, of the steamer, to a friend. He says : 

"The word Klondyke means Deer River, and the stream is called the Rein- 
deer River on the charts. It empties into the Yukon fifty miles above the 
Big River. The geographical position of the juncture is 7G degrees 10 min- 
utes north latitude, 138 degrees 50 minutes west longitude. Bonanza Creek 
dumps into the Klondyke about tAvo miles above the Yukon. Eldorado is a 
tributary of the Bonanza. There are numerous other creeks and tributaries, 
the main river being three hundred miles long. 

"The gold so far has been taken from Bonanza and Eldorado, both well 
named, for the richness of the placers is truly mai-vellous. Eldorado, thirty 
miles long, is staked the whole length and as far as worked has paid. 

"One of our passengers who is taking home $100,000 with him has worked 
one hundred feet of his ground and refused $200,000 for the remainder, and 
confidently expects to clean up $400,000 and more. He has in a bottle $212 
from one pan of dirt. His pay dirt while being washed averaged $2.50 an 
hour to each man shovelling in. Two others of our miners who worked their 
own claim cleaned up $6,000 from one day's washing. 

"There is about fifteen feet of dirt above bed rock, the pay streak averag- 
ing from four to six feet, which is tunnelled out while the ground is frozen. 
Of course, the ground taken out is thawed by building fires, and w-hen the 
thaw comes and water rushes in they set their sluices and wash the dirt. 
Two of our fellows thought a small bird in the hand worth a large one in the 
bush, and sold their claims for $45,000, getting $4,500 down, the remainder to 
be paid in monthly instalments of $10,000 each. The purchasers had no more 
than $5,000 paid. They were twenty days thawing and getting out dirt. 
Then there was no water to sluice with, but one fellow made a rocker, and 
in ten days took out the $10,000 for the first instalment. So, tunnelling and 
rocking, they took out $40,000 before there was water to sluice with. 

"Of course, these things read like the story of Aladdin, but fiction is not at 
all in it with facts at Klondyke. The ground located and prospected can be 
ATorked out in a few years, but there is an immense territory untouched, and 
the laboring man wlio can get there with one year's provisions will have a 
better chance to make a stake than in any other part of the world." 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 29 



SOME LARGE NUGGETS. 



THERE ARE MORE WHERE THEY CAME FROM. 



The largest nugget yet found was picked out by Burt Hudson on claim Six 
of the Bonanza, and is \\ ortli a little over $250. Tlie next largest was found 
by J. Clements, and was worth $231. The last four pans Clements took out 
ran $2,000, or an average of $500 each, and one of them went $775. Bigger 
pockets have been struck in the Cariboo region and in California, but no- 
where on earth have men picked up so much gold in so short a time. A 
young man named Beechei", came down afoot and by dog sledge, starting out 
early in March. He brought $12,000 to $15,000 with him. He was purser 
on the Weare last summer, and went in after the close of navigation in 
October or September. About Dec. 15 he got a chance to work a shift on 
sliares, and in sixty days made his stake, which is about $40,000. He has 
purchased a claim or two. You will find more gold in circulation in Daw- 
son than you ever saw in all your life. Saloons take in $3,000 to $4,000 
each per night. Men who have been in all parts of the world where gold is 
mined say they never saw such quantities taken in so short a time. 

The diggings around Circle City and in the older places are rich enough 
to satisfy any ordinary demand, but they have all, or nearly all, been tem- 
porarily left for the new fields. There are probably 250 men working in the 
mines outside Circle City, but there would have been 1,500 had not the new 
strike been made. Should the new field play out, which is a thing impos- 
sible, the older diggings woul be returned to and with profit. However, the 
new finds are not going to play out. There is enough in sight to confirm the 
belief that these new diggings cannot be exhausted in ten years. Of course, 
comparatively little gold is being taken out now, for the streams are too 
high, but there is much that was drifted and piled up last winter that is 
not yet washed. 



MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS IN SIGHT. 



WILLIAM STANLEY'S GRAPHIC STORY. 



The New York Journal prints this story of William Stanley: Stanley 
is one of the fortunate ones who returned from the Klondyke ou 
the Portland. In addition to his present fortune he is interested with his 
son and two New Yorkers in claims wliich, he says, will yield $2,000,000. 
Stanley is a married man : he has a wife and several children. During his 
absence in the far North the family struggled to eke out an existence, for 



30 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

everything that Stanley liad went to pay his expenses to the gold firfdi. 
Stanley is well on in years. He was not accustomed to hardships; for years 
he conducted a little book store in an out-of-the-way business corner. 

To-day people who used to help him by giving 10 to 15 cents cannot real- 
ize that he is wealthy. Here is his story: 

"I went to the Yukon as a last resort. I was getting old and I had no 
money and I knew that I would never get any unless I took it out of the 
ground. It was a year ago last INIarch that I left Seattle. I am free to con- 
fess that my family was at that time in destitute circumstances. I made 
for the Y^ukon. I had never before been there. I knew nothing of mining 
and nothing of the hardships of the country, and, in fact, was as great a 
"greeny" as ever set foot in the great gold country of the Northwest. My 
son, Samuel Stanley, went with me. He was as ignorant as his father. 

•'While we were on the steamship Alki, which took us ix> Dyea, we met 
two young men, Charles and George Worden. They were residents of Sack- 
ett's Harbor, N". Y., and had come West in search of gold. Their mother lives 
back in the old home, so they informed me. We became very intimate with 
the Wordens. They knew little, if anything, about the country, and one 
day in conservation one of us suggested that we form a company and do our 
work on the syndicate plan, each man to share and share alike. We wan- 
dered through the Y'ukon districts for several months and were getting dis- 
couraged, becavise there seemed to be nothing for us. We met other men 
who were getting rich, but we grew poorer as the days came and went. Once 
we had about concluded to go back. 

"It was in the latter part of last September that we befriended a man 
who gave us a tip as to the riches of the Klondyke. We were willing to be- 
lieve anything, and made for the Klondyke at once. At that time we were 
en route for Forty Mile Creek. We were then at Sixty Mile. 

"The first thing we did when we reached the Klondyke was to spend a 
little time at the mouth of the stream. We w^ere there just twenty-four 
hours when the little steamer Ellis an-ived with 150 excited miners aboard. 
They had just heard the good news, and on their arrival they made a rush 
for the richest spots on Bonanza and Eldorado creeks. 

"We went to Eldorado Creek and made locations on what were called 
Claims Twenty-five, Twenty-six, Fifty-three and Fifty-four. I think it 
was in October that we made our locations. We worked Claims Twenty- 
five and Twenty-six, and were very soon satisfied that we had a fine thing, 
and went to work to make preparations for a long winter of experiences and 
hardships. We got all we wanted before spring. Every man put in his time 
sinking prospect holes in the gulch. 

"I tell the simple truth when I say that within three months we took from 
the two claims the sum of $112,000. A remarkable thing about our findings 



TIJH KLONDVlvK (iOLD MINKS. 31 

is that in taking this enonnons sniu we drift up and down stream, nor did 
we cross-cut tlic pay streaks. 

"Of coxirse, we may be wrong, but this is tlic way we are figuring, and 
we are so certain that what we say is true that we would not sell out for a 
million. In our judgment, based on close figuring, there are in the tw© 
claims we worked, and Claims No. 53 and No. 54, $1,(K)0 to the lineal foot. 
I .say that in four claims, we have at the veiy least $-2,000,000, which can 
be taken out without any great work. 

"I want to say that I believe there is gold in every creek in Alaska. Cer- 
tainly on the Klondyke the claims are not spotted. One seems to be as good 
as another. It's gold, gold, gold all over. It's yards wide and yards deep. 
I say so, because I have been there and have the gold to show for it. All 
you have to do is to run a hole down, and there you find plenty of gold 
dust. I would say that our pans on the Eldorado claims will average $J, 
some go as high as $150, and, believe me, when I say that, in five pans, I 
have taken out as high as $750 and sometimes more. I did not pick the 
pans, but simply put them against my breast and scooped the dirt off thij 
bed rock. 

"Of course, the majority of those on the Klondyke luive done much figur- 
ing as to the amount of gold the Klondyke will yield. Many times we fel- 
lows figured on the prospects of the Eldorado. I would not hesitate much 
about guaranteeing $21,000,000, and should not be surprised a bit if $2.5»- 
000,000, or even $30,000,000, was taken out. 

"Some people will tell you that the Klondyke is a marvel, and there will 
never be a discovery in Alaska which will compare with it. I don't believe 
it. I think that there will be a number of new creeks discovered that will 
make wonderful yields. Why, Bear Gulch is just like Eldorado. Bear Gulch 
has a double bed rock. Many do not know it, but it's a fact, and miners 
who are acquainted with it will tell you the same thing. 

"The bed rocks are three feet apart. In the lower bed the gold is as black 
as a black cat, and in the upper bed. the gold is as bright as any you ever 
saw. We own No. 10 claim, below Discovery, on Bear Gulch, and also Nos. 
20 and 21 on Last Chance Gulch, above Discovery. We prospected for three 
miles on Last Chance Gulch, and could not tell the best place to locate the 
Discovery claim. Tlie man making a discovery of the creek is entitled by 
law to stake a claim and take an adjoining one, or, in other words, two 
claims; so you see he wants to get in a good location on the creek or gulch. 
Hunker Gulch is highly looked to. I think it will prove another great dis- 
trict, and some good strikes have also been made on Dominion Creek. In- 
dian Creek is also becoming famous. 

"What are we doing witli all the money we take out? 

"Well, we paid $45,000 spot cash for a half interest in Claim. 32,. Eldorado. 



32 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

We also loaned $5,000 each to four parties on Eldorado Creek, taking mort- 
gages on their claims, so you see we are well secured. 

"No, I do not want any better security for my money than Eldorado 
claims, thank you. I only wish I had a mortgage on the whole ci'eek. 

"We had a great deal of trouble in securing labor in prospecting our prop- 
erties. Old miners would not work for any price. We could occasionally 
rope in a greenhorn and get him to work for a few days at $15 a day. Six 
or eight miners worked on shares for us about six weeks, and we settled. 1 1 
developed that they had earned in that length of time $5,300 each. That 
was pretty good pay, wasn't it? We paid one old miner $12 for three hours' 
work and offered to continue him at that rate, but he would not have it, 
and he went out to hunt a claim of his own. My son, Samuel, and Charles 
Worden are in charge of our interests in Alaska. George Worden and I came 
out, and we will go back in March and relieve them. Then they will come 
out for a spell. George goes from here to his home in New York State to 
make his mother comfortable. 

"I am an American by birth, but of Irish parents. I formerly lived in 
Western Kansas, but my claim there was not quite as good as the one I 
staked out on the Eldorado Creek." 



HOW TO GET THERE. 



CHOICE OF TWO ROUTES. 



There are two routes either of which can be taken to the Klondyke. The 
best but the most expensive is by steamer from Seattle to St. Michael's, and 
then by river boat up the Yukon 1,700 miles to Dawson City. By this route 
it takes thirty-five to forty days> and the fare is $180. The steamers permit 
only 150 pounds of baggage for each passenger. Two steamers that will 
leave before the river is closed by ice cannot carry more than 150 passengers 
each. The other route is by land by way of Juneau. The passenger goes 
fi-oni Seattle to Juneau. There at this season all packs must be carried on 
tbe back or on mules. When snow falls sledges can be used and the trip 
can be made much more easily. The distance is 650 miles. This trip is thus 
described : 

"Leaving Juneau you go to Dyea by way of Lime Canal, and from there 
to Lake Lindennann, thirty miles on foot, or portage, as we call it. The lake 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 33 

gives yoii a ride of live or six miles, and then follows another long journey 
overland to the headwaters of Lake Bennett, which is twenty-eight mile'* 
Itiiig. On foot you go again for several miles, and then the caribou crossing 
of the river furnishes transportation for four miles to Tagish Lake, where 
another twenty-one-mile boat ride may be had. 

"This is followed by a weary stretch of mountainous country, and then 
Marsh or Mud Lake is reached. You get another boat ride of twenty-four 
miles, and then go down the creek for twenty-seven miles to Miles Canon 
and to White Horse Rapids. 

"This is one of the most dangerous places on the entire route, and shouli 
be aAoided by all strangers. The stream is full of sunken rocks and runs 
with the speed of a mile ra<;e. Passing White Horse Rapids the journey is 
down the river for thirty miles to Lake Labarge, where thirty-one miles of 
navigable water is found. Another short portage and Lous River is reached, 
where you have a 200-mile journey, which brings you to Fort Selkirk. 

"At this point Polly and Lous rivers come together, forming the Y^ukon. 
From that point on is practically smooth sailing, though the stranger must 
be e.Nceedingly careful." 

lot some time past a number of local and English companies have been 
studyiuii (lie lay of the land between Chilkat and Circle City with a view to 
estiiblisliing a quicker, and more practicable way of transportation to the 
gold fields along the Y'ukon. Goodall, Perkins & Co., of New York have 
made a thorough investigation of the matter, and Capt. Chas. M. Goodall 
of that firm says: 

"The rich find in the Klondyke district will probably result in some better 
nirans of transportation, though the roughness of the country and the lim- 
ited open season will not justify anybody in building a railroad for any dis- 
tance. Recently we sent several hundred sheep and cattle to Juneau, and 
from there to the head of navigation by the steamer Alki. Mr. Dalton, who 
discovered the trail across the country from the Chilkat River to Fort Sel- 
kirk, is taking live stock to the mines. His route lies from the head of 
navigation through Chilkoot Pass and along the trail, which is over prairie 
several hundred miles, to the Y'ukon River, near Fort Selkirk. At this time 
of ycai the prairie is clear and bunch grass grows on it in abundance. 

"I believe this will ultimately be the popular route. People could go over 
it in wagons, as the prairie is level. Stations could be established, as was 
done on our plains in "49. It would be easy to go down the Yukon in boats 
from where Ualton's trail strikes it to Dawson City and other mining 
camps. 

"The plan to build a traction road over Chilkoot Pass from Dyea, the head 
of navigation after leaving Juneau, to Lake Linderman, is not a good busi- 
ness proposition. It has been talked of, and the rest of the plan is to have 



34 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

Bteamers to ply from Lake Linderman through the other lakes to the Yukon. 
But to do this two portages would have to be made on account of the falls 
in the river, and these would be enormously expensive. 

"A British company has had in contemplation for some time the con- 
struction of a railroad from the head of navigation on Taku Inlet, near Ju- 
neau, to Teslin, or Aklene Lake, and thence down some small rivers to the 
Yukon and the mines. Even by this route there would be need of portages. 
The natural way to take in freight, unless the hurry be great, is by St. 
]^Iichaol and up the Yukon. To establish even a wagon road over Dalton a 
Trail on the prairie, a railroad over the divide from Dyea to Lake Linder- 
man, or a railroad as planned by the English company, concessions would 
have to be secured fron) the British Government." 



FROn SAN FRANCISCO TO THE MINES. 



OCEAN ROUTE. 



Miles. 

To St. Michael's 2,850^ 

To Circle City 4,350 

To Forty Mile 4,600 

To Klondyke 4,650 

OVERLAND ROUTE. 

Miles. 

To Juneau (by steamer) 1,680» 

J uneau to Chilkat 80- 

Juneau to Dyea 100 

Juneau to head of navigation 106 

Juneau to summit of Chilcoot Pass 114 

Juneau to head of Lake Linderman 123. 

Juneau to foot of Lake Linderman 127 

Juneau to head of Lake Bennct 12S 

Juneau to foot of Takish Lake , 173 

Juneau to head of Lake Marsh 17S 

Juneau to head of canyon 223 

Juneau to head of White Horse Rapids 225- 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 36 

MUefl. 

Juneau to Tahkeena River 240 

Juneau to head of Lake Lebarge 256 

Jimeau to foot of Lake Lebarge 284 

Juneau to Hotalinqua River 318 

Juneau to Big Salmon River 349 

Juneau to Little Salmon River 385 

Juneau to Five Fingers Rapids 444 

Juneau to Rink Rapids 450 

Juneau to White River 599 

Juneau to Stewart iver 009 

Juneau to Sixty-Mile Post 629 

Juneau to Lawson City 078 

Juneau to Forty-Mile Post 728 

Juneau to Circle City 898 

Forty-Mile to diggings at Miller Creek 70 

Circle City to diggings at Birch Creek 50 

Klondyke to diggings 5 



PERILS OF THE TRIP. 



ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ICE AND SNOW IN THE PASSES TO THE 

UPPER YUKON. 



A letter, written to the San Francisco E.xamiiier by Edgar A. Mizner, gives 
a graphic picture of life in the Klondyke region and the hardships and perils 
that the miner may expect to meet and undergo. He is at present the agent 
of the Alaska Commercial Company tliere. He set out from Seattle for the 
Y'ukon in March last. He had had mining experience before, having been 
frozen in one Winter on the Pend d'Oreille. Mizner Mountain, over against 
the Kootenai country, is named for him, his prospecting pick being the first 
to find pay ore there. 

From a camp on the ice of Lake Bennett he wrote on May 0: 

■'It is nearly two months since I left you, and if I have not forgotten you 

altogether it's not the fault of the trip, for surely it's the devil's own. The 

man who wants the Yukon gold should know what he is going to tackle 

before he starts. If there is an easy part of the trip I haven't struck it yet. 



36 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

••Eight of lis made the trip from Juneau to Dyea, 100 miles, on the little 
steam hunu-h Aloit. The steamer Mexico reached Dyea the same morning 
with 4'23 men. As she drew so much water she had to stay about three miles 
off shore and land her passengers and freight as best she might in more or 
less inaccessible places on the rocky shores. 

"Then up oame the twenty-two-foot tide and many poor fellows saw their 
entire outfits swept into the sea. The tide runs there like the Fundy race. 
At Dyea there were but two houses, a store and, of course, a saloon. So 
when we landed on the beach and got out on the snow and ice we had to 
••rustle"' for ourselves. We have kept on "rustling" for ourselves from that 
on. 

"We camped the first night at Dyea. It is a most enjoyable thing, this 
making camp in the snow. First you must shovel down from three to six 
feet to find a solid crust. Then you must go out in the snow up to your 
neck to find branches with which to make a bed, and then comes the hunt 
for a dead tree for firewood. Dinner is cooked on a small sheetiron stove. 

"Always keep an eye on the 'grub,' especially the bacon, for the dog.s are 
like so many ravenous wolves, and it is not considered just the proper thing 
to be left without anything to eat in this frostbitten land. At night it is 
necessary to tie up the sacks of bacon in the trees or build trestles for them. 
But to the trip. ' 

"The second day we went up Dyea canon. It is only three miles long, but 
seems fully thirty. This is true of all distances in this countiy. About one 
hundred pounds is about all a man wants to pull in this canon, as the way 
is steep and the ice slippery. So camps must be made short distances apart, 
as you have to go over the trail several times in bringing up your outfit. 
Remember, an ordinaiy outfit weighs from 500 to 800 pounds, and some of 
them much more. 

"But the summit of Chilcoot Pass — that's the place that puts the yellow 
fear into many a man's heart. Some took one look at it, sold their outfits 
for what they would bring and turned back. This pass is over the ridge 
which skirts the coast. It is only about 1,200 feet from base to top, but it 
is almost straight up and down — a sheer steep of snow and ice. There is a 
blizzard blowing there most of the time, and when it is at its height, no man 
may cross. For days at a time the summit is impassable. An enterprising 
man named Burns has rigged a windlass and cable there, and with this he 
hoists up some freight at a cent a pound. The rest is carried over on the 
backs of Indians. We were detained ten days waiting our turn to have our 
outfits carried over and for favoring weather. 

"After going about three miles up a dark canon a whirling snow storm 
struck us. But having risen at such an unconscionable hour we would not 
turn back. Our pride was near the end of us. I hope I may never experi- 



THE KI.ONDYKE GOLD MINES. 37 

ence such another day. The air was so filled willi snow that at times it was 
impossible to see ten feet. It was all we could do to keep our feet against 
the wind which howled down the mountain. My beard became a mass of ice. 

"The trail was soon obliterated and we were lost. But we stumbled on 
and by a rare chance we came upon the handle of a shovel which nuirked o\ir 
cache. There was nothing to do but fight our way back to camp. Tlie 
storm did not abate in the slightest. In fact, it raged for four long days. It 
was nearly dark when with knocking knees we got back to camp, more dead 
than alive. 

"The next day ten men made up a party to go on the same trip back for 
their outfits. The day after that they were found huddled in a hole dug in 
a drift eating raw bacon. After another day of rest we put masts on our 
sleds, rigged sails and came across Lake Linderman and over Lindorman 
Portage. We are now camped on the head of Lake Bennet. 

Another letter written by Mr. Mizner from Forty Mile City, as late as 
June 12th, is quite as interesting. He says: 

"The trip was an interesting one, but very dangerous. Many men lost 
their boats and everything they had, and there are rumors of men having 
been drowned. Shortly after leaving Lake Laborge we came upon a party 
who had just rescued two young fellows from rocks in the middle of the 
rapids. They could not save their outfit or their demolished boat, and all 
they had went down the river with the rushing flood. One of the young 
men had everything but his shirt stripped from him by the swirl. We 
took him in charge and landed him at Klondyke. 

"The big canyon between Mud Lake and Lake Laborge is a grand and 
impressive place. The river above is a quarter of a mile wide, but in the 
canyon it narrows to fifty feet. The walls rise on either side, sheer and 
smooth, full seventy-five feet. Down rushes the water with a frightful 
roar, rolling the waves at least ten feet high. Like everybody else, we 
went down ahead to take a look before shooting these rapids. From th« 
clifl' view the task seems impossible, but there is no other way, and shoot 
you must. So, with Wilson at the oars to hold her straight, I took the 
steering paddle, and we made for the mouth of the gorge. 

"It was all over in about thirty seconds. We were through in safety, 
but it was the most hair-raising thirty seconds I ever experienced. There 
was quite enough thrill in it for a lifetime. Over the terifying r»ar of 
the water we could faintly hear the cheer put up by the undecided hun- 
dred or more men who lined the cliffs above us. Up came the ice-cold wa- 
ter against us in tubfuls. We were wet through. So was everything else 
in the boat, and the boat itself half full of water. But we were soon bailed 
and dried — and safe. 

"Then we went on to 'ho White House Rapids, and here we let our 



38 THE KLONDYKIC GOLD MINES. 

boat through with loug ropes. Two daj's later we shot the Five Finger 
Rapids and the Rink Rapids without any trouble. The last four days of 
tlic trip we fixed up our stove in the boat, and only went ashore twice for 
wood. The mosquitoes on the shore are numbered by the million and are 
fierce as bull terriers, but in the middle of the river they troubled us but 
little. 

"The sun sinks out of sight now about 10.30 p. m., and comes up again 
about 3 a. m. About midnight, however, it is almost as light as noonday. 
There is no night. At Dawson there is a little sawmill and rough houses 
going up in all directions, but for the most part it is a city of tents. On 
the shore of tlie river are hundreds of boats, and others are getting in 
every day. 

■'The Klondyke has not been one particle overrated. I have seen gold 
measured by the bucketful. Just think of a man taking $800 out of one 
pan of dirt. Mrs. Wilson panned out $154 out of one pan in one of the 
mines I am to take charge of. This, without doubt, is the richest gold 
strike the world has ever known. 

"Of course all the claims in the Klondyke district are taken up now, and 
there are hundreds of men who own claims valued from $50,000 to 
$1,000,000. But with all these men in the country many miles of new 
ground will be prospected, and fiom the lay of the country I think other 
ofold fields are certain to be located." 



CANADIAN GOVERNMENT'S ATTITUDE. 

AN INTERNATIONAL QUESTION AS TO MINER'S RIGHTS. 

The fact that the Klondyke placer diggings, as thus far prospected and 
developed, ai'e well east of the 14Ist meridian, which forms the boundary 
line between Alaska and the Dominion of Canada has attracted no little 
attention among our northern neighbors, and many contradictory reports 
as to what attitude the Ottawa Government will assume as to the rights of 
miners who are not British subjects, have come to us. That the Canadian 
Government has the right to prohibit all but British subjects from working 
these diggings cannot be questioned. But, as the New York Sun puts it, 
it would be preposterous to suppose that the Dominion would really at- 
tempt to exercise its right of exclusion. Gold fields all over the world are 
open to miners without regard to nationality. Canadians to-day are free to 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 39 

work in the Yukon diggings on our side of tlie boundary. The Dominion 
will do well enough in collec-ting its revenues and customs duties on the 
new industry, and on the collateral industries certain to spring up among 
the population that will flock there. Already it has a customs officer for the 
district. 

American miners have nished in large numbers from Forty-mile Creek 
and other points to the new Klondyke, Honanza Creek, Eldorado Creek, or 
other regions, and they have staked out their claims. The Dominion would 
have its hands full in dispossessing the.se men, and there would be plenty of 
reason for retaliation on our part. We do, it is true, exclude Chinese im- 
migration, but it would be dangerous for the Dominion to put Mongolians 
and Americans on the same footing in an exclusion policy. 

American miners who have written to the Department of State asking 
protection fpr their Klondyke claims have no rciuson to wony; and, in fact, 
it maybe siirmised that their anxieties, rather than any indications given by 
the Ottawa Government, are the source of the absurd rumor of exclusion. 



DAWSON NOT A TOUGH TOWN. 



THE CIVILIZATION OF A MINING CAMP. 



Ijadue, who is a veteran prospector, and has seen all the tough mining 
camps on the Pacific coast, gives this interesting description of the new 
city of Dawson, which promises to have 30,000 inhabitants before Spring: 

"It may be said with absolute truth that Dawson City is one of the most 
moral towns of its kind in the world. There is little or no quarreling and no 
brawls of any kind, though there is considerable drinking and gambling. 
Every man carries a pistol if he wishes to, yet it is a rare occurrence when 
one is displayed. Tlie principal sport with mining men is found around the 
gambling table. There they gather after nightfall, and play until the late 
hours in the morning. They have some big games, too. It sometimes costs 
as much as $50 to draw a card. A game with $2,000 as stakes is an ordinary 
event. But with all of that there has not been decided trouble. If a man is 
fussy and quarrelsome he is quietly told to get out of the game, and that is 
the end of it. 

"Many people have an idea that Dawson City is competely isolateil and 
can communicate with the outside world only once in even' twelve month". 
That i£ a big mistake, however. Circle City, only a few miles away, has a 



40 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

mail once each month, and there we have our mail addressed. It is true the 
cost is pretty high, $1 a letter and two for a paper; yet by that expendi- 
ture of money we are able to keep in direct communication with our friends 
on the outside. 

"In the way of public institutions our camp is at present without any, 
but by next season we will have a church, a music hall, a schoolhouse and a 
hospital. The last institution will be under direct control of the Sisters of 
Mercy, who have already been stationed for a long time at Circle City and 
Forty-Mile Camp. 

"Nearly a score of children were in Dawson City when I left, so I donated 
a lot and $100 for a school. No one can buy anything on credit in Dawson. 
It is spot cash for every one, and payment is always gold dust. Very few 
have any regular money." 

All experts estimate that the minimum supply of provisions which a man 
should take to Klondyke is 1,000 pounds, though several say they wouldn't 
^•entul■e in ^\■ithout at least one ton, as the season over the Juneaia route 
closes up by September 15. The rush promises to be unprecedented, and a 
large number of prospectors, after being landed at Juneau, will find it 
impossible to get their supplies transported. Like all other great mining 
rushes, this promises to be full of disappointments. 

A new route to the Klondyke will be opened next spring. It is overland 
from Juneau to Fort Selkirk, on the Yukon, and is entirely by land. Captain 
Goodall, of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, inspected it this Summer, 
and reported it practicable. It is about 700 miles long, and it crosses the 
divide over Chilkat Pass, which is lower and more easily crossed than the 
Chilkoot Pass. No lakes or rivers are on the route, but the trail runs over 
a high level prairie. Old Pioneer Dalton, after whom the trail is named, is 
now driving a band of sheep on the trail to Dawson City, where he expects 
to arrive in August, with fresh meat for the miners. This Dalton trail is 
well adapted for driving stock, but for men the tramp is too long. 

"Dawson is not like most of the mining camps. It is not a 'tough' town. 
Murders are almost unknown. 

"The miners are a quiet and peaceable kind of men, who have gone there 
to work, and are willing that everybody else shall have an equal chance with 
themselves. A great deal of gambling is done in the town, but serious quar- 
rels are an exception. As a gambling town I think it is equal to any that I 
have ever seen; and this, by the way, is always the test of a mining camp's 
prosperity. Stud poker is the usual game. They play $100 and oftentimes 
$200 or $500 on the third card." 

L. B. Roads said: "I am located on claim 21, above the discovery on 
Bonanza Creek. I did exceedingly well up there. I was among the fortu- 
nate ones, as I cleared about $40,000, but brought only $5,000 with me. I 



THE KLONDYKIi; GOLD MINES. 41 

was the first man to get to bed rock gi-avel and to discover that it was 
lined with gold dust and nuggets. The rock was seamed and cut in V-shaped 
streaks, caused, it is supposed by glacial action. In those seams I found a 
clay that was exceedingly rich. In fact, there was a stratum of pay gravel 
four feet thick upon the rock, which was lined with gold, particularly in 
these channels or streaks. The rock was about sixteen feet from the sur- 
face. The discovery made the camp. It waa made on October 23, 1896, and 
as soon as the news spread everybody rushed to the diggings from Circle 
City, Forty-Mile, and from every other camp in the district. 

"Some of the saloons here take in $300 per day in dust and nuggets. 
Beer is fifty cents per drink. I have quit drinking. Logs are worth $30 per 
1,000, and lumber $150 per 1,000. Most people live in tents, but cabins are 
being put up rapidly. 

"We have the most orderly mining community in the world. There is no 
thief, no claim jumping, no cheating or swindling in the many gambling 
houses. The greenhorn gets an honest game and every man's hand is above- 
board. If any fumiy work is attempted we run the offender out." 



FEARS OF STARVATION. 



If twenty or thirty thousand go to the mining camp, as now seems 
probable, stan'ation will result, as it will be absolutely impossible to feed 
more than ten thousand people with the supplies that are now on the 
way. In another season boats can be built and arrangements made for 
laying down an unlimited supply of food, but now the Alaska Commercial 
Company has only three vessels, while the other two lines only run to 
Juneau. Yukon river steamers are sent up in small sections and put to- 
gether on the river. They draw only three or four feet of Avater, but with 
e\en this light draught they often become stranded on the sand bars in 
the upper waters of the Yukon. By the Juneau waters it is impossible to 
carry in any large quantity of provisions, as every pound of supplies must 
be carried on Indian's backs over Chilkoot Pass and by frequent portages 
that separate the lakes and streams on this overland route. After Sept. 
15 this Juneau route is impassible to all except Indians, because of fierce 
storms which only Indians and experienced ti-avellers can face. 

The Alaska Commercial Company is very fearful that starvation will 
occur in the new camp this winter. President Louis Sloss said to-day that 



42 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

hii company w onkl do tlie best it could to feed those who rushed into the 
Klondyke, but he said that probably it would be impossible to get in 
more than 3,200 tons of food before ice closed the Yukon River. The com- 
pany has .500 tons on the way to St. Michael's, but the river usually 
freezes over about the middle of September. They have only three boats, 
as one of the best boats was wrecked hist spring. The supply will not 
suflGce for more than the number of people ahea,dy at the mining camp; 
so, if 20,000 or 30,000 sliould rush in, carrying only a small supply of food, 
tlic stores will be compelled to limit sales to each purchaser, and those 
not able to find work will starve. 

Joe Ladue, who owns the town site of Dawson City, emphasized Mr. 
Sloss's wai-ning. He said no one had any idea of the amount of food re- 
quired by hearty men doing hard manual work in extreme cold weather. 
He said the suflering was keen last winter because the men could not 
secure a variety of food, which their systems craved. The transportation 
companies sent large amounts of whiskey, wliich found no great sale. 
Then they rushed in stoves, picks, shovels and other hardware, but the 
last tiling they seemed to think of delivering was food, which was needed 
more than anything else. Especially the men needed such things as evap- 
orated potatoes, A\hich relieve the solid diet of bacon and beans; but it 
^^ill be hopeless to try to land any of these luxuries, or even dried fruits, 
Avhich are indispensable. 

A returned New Yorker said: 

'■ 'The only thing I fear is a famine tlie coming winter. The united 
•efTorts of the Alaska Commercial Comimny and the North American 
Transportation and Trading Company cannot transport over 4,500 tons of 
freight up tlie river this season, and not until next February can stuff be 
freighted over from Dyea, Juneau and other points down along the south- 
•ern coast. There was great sufl'ering last winter, and, though no one 
starved, food rates and rates for everything in the supply line were beyond 
"belief. Flour was $120 a hundred weight at one time and beef from $1 to 
^2 a pound. Moose hams sold for about $30, or $2 per pound. Ordinary 
shovels for digging brought $17 and $18 apiece, and other stuff of that 
kind could not be obUxined. 

'■'Wages, however, were proportional; $2 per hour was common wages, 
and even now in these long days a man can command $1.50 per hour up 
here, or from $15 to $20 per day. The river steamers cannot keep crews 
tliis summei-, for all run away to the mines as soon as they get in that 
region. Indians are all the help that can be kept, and even they are doing 
soanething in the line of locating claims. 

" 'The man who goes in this winter over the Chilkat and Chilkoot 
Passes, or the man who goes in this summer by this steamboat route, 
-should take in two years' gnib. 1 understand that steamboat companio* 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 43= 

•will not cany grub or niprchandise for any man, and that they are mak- 
ing a flat piissonger rate of $150 for any port from Seattle to Dawson. 
This means that they will get several thousand people in there this sea- 
son, and if they do not get enough grub in, grub will be high. Not less^ 
than 1,000 newcomers came over tliis spring and how many will come by 
boat we can onl)' conjecture. 



COST OF LIVING W DAWSON.. 



THE ONLY CHEAP THING IS ICE AND FRESH AIR. 



Laborers, it is aserted, are paid as high as $15 a day, but the advice is- 
given that no man can afford to go to the new camp without from $500 to- 
$1,000 Avith which to support himself and insure the possibility of returning 
in case of adversity. 

Living, of course, comes high. The region produces little or no fruit or 
vebetables. The meat of the caribou and the moose is sometimes scarce, and 
there are seasons when no salmon can be obtained. 

Here is a list of prices that prevailed in Dawson City when the miners 
sl4;rled away: 

Flour, per 100 lbs $12.00' 

Moose ham, per lb 1.00 

Caribou meat, lb Go 

Beans, per lb 10 

Rifo, per lb 25 

Sugar, per lb 25 

Br.con, per lb 40 

Butter, per roll 1.50 

Eggs, per doz 1.50- 

Better eggs, doz 2.00' 

Salmon, each $1.00 to 1.50- 

Potatoes, per lb 25- 

Turnip!', per lb 15 

Tea, per lb 1.0(K 

CofTee, per lb 50 

Dried fruits, per lb 35- 



44 THE KLONDYKE GOLD INIINES. 

Canned fruits 50 

I^emons, each 20 

Oranges, each 50 

Tobacco, per lb 1.50 

Liquors, per drink 50 

Sliovel? 2.50 

Picks 5.00 

Coal oil, per gal 1.00 

Overalls 1.50 

Underwear, per suit ■ $5.00 to 7.50 

Shoes 5.00 

Rubber boots $10 to 15.00 

Based on supply and demand the above quoted prices may vary several 
hundred per cent, on some articles at any time. 



THE CLIMATE AND THE flOSQUITOES. 



SHORT SUMMER— HEAT AND COLD CONTRASTS. 



There is a short, hot Summer of less than four months, with practically no 
Spring or Autumn. The ice begins to break up in thfe rivers about May 25, 
and navigation commences on the Yukon about the first week in June. It 
begins to get very cool by the latter part of September, and is almost Winter 
weather by the 1st of October. The winter is very cold and dry, with not 
more than three feet of snow. There is only about three inches of rainfall 
during the winter. and not more than a foot or ten inches the whole year 
around. 

It is a country in which it is very hard to find food, as there is practically 
no game. Before the whites went into the region there were not more than 
300 natives. They had hard work to support themselves on account of the 
scarcity of game. 

The thermometer sometimes goes down to 68 degrees below zero in Janu- 
ary and February. The cold, however, is not so intense as may be imagined, 
and 68 degrees there could not be compared with the same here. The dress 
is mostly of furs in the Winter, that used by the natives, and unless there is 
a sharp wind blowing one may keep fairly comfortable. 



THE KLONDYKK (JOLl) MINKS. 45 

After this there is scarcely a let up before tlie middle of the following 
March. Just before reaching Lake Linderman the famous Chilcoot Pass is 
encountered, and woe to the traveller who is caught in one of the snow 
storms, which spring up with the suddenness of an April shower and rage for 
days. They are frozen simoons. Nature has provided at the pass a protec- 
tion against these terrific outbreaks in the shape of an immense overhanging 
rock. At the top of the pass it was the custom in former years for the Indi- 
ans to corral the wild sheep and goats, which were to be found in large num- 
bers in all the surrounding mountains. The species now is practically ex- 
tinct. 

This route, by the way of Juneau, is a fine trip of 1,000 miles or so. For 
an individual it is more costly, but for a party it is cheaper. 

At the head of Lake Linderman is a saw mill, where prospectors are per- 
mitted to prepare the lumber for the boats necessary to complete the journey 
to the camp. 

This work generally consumes five or six days, but if the prospector is in a 
hurry he can purchase a boat, the average price being $80. Then he floats 
on and on for hundreds of miles and finally reaches the gold and the miners 
and the Arctic circle. 



CAPITAL REQUIRED BY MINERS. 



SOME THINGS INDISPENSABLE IN AN OUTFIT. 



Mr. William Van Stooten, the raining engineer and metallurgist, gives his 
views in the New York Herald as to the necessary outfit required by miners 
contemplating a trip to the Klondyke diggings. He says: 

"I should place the minimum amount at $600. It would not be safe to 
start out with less. But you had better make it a thousand if possible, for 
with the present rush it is likely that prices will be trebled or even quad- 
rupled. Even the Indians will charge more for their assistance. Still, if a 
man is stranded on the way he will probably find it easy to make a living 
almost anywhere in the gold bearing portion of the Yukon basin. He can 
earn $10 or $15 a day digging the ground for men with good claims. And 
with the rise in prices these wages may also go up. Bear in mind, however, 
that the price of living must increase in proportion." 

"What would you consider the proper outfit for a miner in starting out?" 



46 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

"Well, the matter of clothing must be left to individual taste, needs and 
means. But the miners usually adopt the native costume. The boots, 
usually made by the Coast Indians, are of several varieties. The water boot 
is of seal and walrus skin, while the dry weather or winter boot is of all 
varieties of styles and material. The more expensive have fur trimmed legs, 
elaborately designed. They cost from $2 to $5 a pair. Trooisers are often 
made of Siberian fawn skin and the skin of the marmot, or ground squirrel. 
Tlie parka, or upper garment, is usually of marmot skins, trimmed with 
Avoherine around the hood and loMer edge, the long hair from the sides of 
the wolverine being used for the hood. This hair is sometimes five or six 
inches in length, and is useful in protecting the face of the wearer. Good,, 
warm flannels can be worn under the parka, and the whole outfit will weigh 
less than the ordinary clothes worn in a covmtry where the weather gets- 
down to zero. The parka is almost cold proof. But it is expensive, ranging 
in price from $25 to .$100. Blankets and fur robes are used for bedding. 
Lynx skins make the best robes. Good ones cost $100. But cheaper robes 
can be made of tlie skins of bear, mink, red fox and the Arctic hare. The 
skins of the latter animal make warm socks to be worn with the skin boots. 

Dresf. is only one item. Every miner must take his own food with him. 
Here is a list of provisions made out by an expert as sufficient to last a man 
for one month: — 

Twenty pounds of flour, Avith baking poAvder; twelve pounds of bacon, six 
pounds of beans, five pounds of desiccated vegetables, four pounds of butter, 
five pounds of sugar, four cans of milk, one pound of tea, three pounds of 
cofl'ee, tAvo pounds of salt, five pounds of corn meal, pepper, mustard. 

The folloAving utensils Avould not be too many: — 

One flying pan, one water kettle, one Yukon stove, one bean pot, tw»- 
plates, one drinking cup, one teapot, one knife and fork, one large and one 
small cooking pan. 

The following tools are necessary for boat building: 

One jack plane, one AvhipsaAv, one hand saw, one rip saw, one draw knife,, 
one axe, one hatchet, one pocket knife, six pounds assorted nails, fhree 
pounds oakum, three pounds of pitch, fifty feet of five-eighths rope. 

Other necessaries Avould be a tent, a rubber blanket, mosquito netting and 
matches. It is also desirable to take along a small, A\ell filled medicine 
chest, a rifle, a trout line and a pair of snow glasses to provide against snow 
blindness. 

The entire outfit can be obtained in Juneau, Avhere one can be sure of get- 
ting just Avhat is needed, Avithout any exti-a Aveight, Avhich is a matter of 
great importance, as many hard portages are to be encountered on the trip. 
Hitherto prices in Juneau haA^e been reasonable. Of course of cannot say 
what may be the result of the present rush in the way of raising prices." 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. ^T 

A WOMAN'S OUTFIT. 



A woman wlio has "been there," says tliat in the matter of dress a woman 
going to the mines should take two paii-s of extiu heavy all-wool blankets, 
one small pillow, one fur robe, one warm shawl, one fur coat, easy fitting; 
three warm woollen dresses, with comfortable l)odices and skirts knee length 
flannel-lined preferable; three pairs of knickers or bloomers to match the 
dresses, three suits of heavy all-wool underwear, three wann flannel night 
dresses, four pairs of knitted woollen stockings, one pair of rubber boots, 
three gingliam aprons that reach from neck to knees, small roll of flannel for 
insoles, wrapping the feet and bandages; a sewing kit, such toilet articles 
as are absolutely necessary, including some skin unguent to protect the face 
u'rom the icy cold, two light blouses or sliirt waists for Summer wear, one 
•oils-kiu blanket to wiap lier ell'ects in, to be secured at Juneau or St. Mi- 
•chels; one fur cape, two pairs of fur gloves, two pairs of surseal moccasins, 
two pairs of muclucs — wet weather moccasins. 

She wears what she pleases en route to Juneau or St. ^Michaels, and 
"when slie makes her start for the diggings she lays aside every civilized trav- 
«)ling garb, including shoes and stays, until she comes out. Instead of car- 
rying tlie fur robe, fur ctoat and rubber boots along, she can get them on en- 
tering Alaska, but the experienced ones say take them along. 

The natives make a fur coat, Mith hood attached, called a "parka," but it 
is clumsy for a white woman to wear who has been accustomed to fitted 
garments. Leggings and shoes are not so safe nor desirable as the moc- 
casins. A trunk is not the thing to transport baggage in. It is much 
better in a pack, with the oilskin cover well tied on. The things to add that 
are u.^eful, but not absolutely necessary, are chocolate, cofTee and the smaller 
light luxuries. 



VALUABLE EXPERT ADVICE. 



A MINlXCx ENGINEER'S WARNINGS AND SUGGESTIONS. 
The New York Herald is authority for the statement that few persons ia 
the mining world are more intimately acquainted with all its features than 
Mr. William Van Stooten, mining engineer and metallurgist. Besides being 
President of the South American Developing Company, which works the 
gold mines of Ecuador, he has relations with all the great gold mines of the 
world. To Mr. Van Stooten it appears that the gold discoveries in the 
Klondyke regions are the most important that have ever been made. 



48 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

"Of course," he says, "there is a tendency to exaggeration in these matters 
which must always be discounted. It is well to bear in mind that the au- 
thor of Munchausen was what ^^-as known in liis day as a mining adven- 
turer. Ilerr Rapp was a German who went over to England to develop the 
copper mines there. The nature of his business may have stimulated hia 
imagination to the marvellous flights of that bit of fiction. But after mak- 
ing all possible allowances for exaggeration there is an obvious residum of 
truth in the reports that come from the Yukon basin. And that residuum 
indicates something more extraordinary than anything recalled by a back- 
ward glance at the facts of 'forty-nine.' 

"No such specifically large amounts of gold were taken out by individuals 
during any similar period of California gold hunting. Two months of work 
in the water has realized more than any six months heretofore known in the 
history of gold mining. We know that Ladue, the Alaska trader, has ac- 
tually taken in fabulous wealth in the natural course of his business. 

"We had long been aware that there was gold in the Yukon basin, but 
the total output for the last ten years before the Klondyke developments 
amounted to not more than a million dollars' worth at the utmost. Now, 
within two months, five millions have been taken out of the Klondyke 
regions. It took the first eight months of work in California to pan out 
that amount under infinitely more favorable conditions of climate and 
weather. That is a straw worth noting. 

"There are just two ways at present, each of which has its advantages 
and its disadvantages. You may go by way of the Pacific Ocean and the 
Yukon River. From Seattle to St. Michael's takes two weeks. In the right 
season it takes two weeks more to sail up the Yukon from St. Michael's to 
Circle City. As the waters along the way are very shallow only flat-bottom 
side- wheelers can accomplish the voyage. Above Circle City the waters be- 
come too shallow even for this sort of craft. It is three hundred miles from 
Circle City to the scene of the latest discoveries. These hundred miles can 
only be covered by walking. Dog sleds draw all the necessary munitions. 
Reindeer, as well as dogs, have been tried successfully, and probably the 
deer M'ill eventually supersede the canines. 

"The other route, by way of Juneau, involves a tramp of seven hundred 
miles to the Klondyke. But in the warm season it is possible to traverse a 
large part of the distance in canoes through the congeries of lakes, all con- 
nected by more or less navigable streams." 

"When would you advise prospective gold digggers to start by either St. 
Michael's or Juneau?" 

"Under all circumstances they should wait until the approach of next 
spring. It is too late in the season to think of going now. It is true that 
the distance from Juneau to the Klondyke can be made in sleds and snow- 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 49 

shoes. But if the voyagers arrive on the spot after the middle of September 
they will find it entirely impossible to do any prospecting. The creeks are 
frozen and covered with snow. No clew to the presence of gold can be found. 
Now, even if the diggers arrive in June it may take them weeks or monthi 
to locate a desirable claim. But, once located, they can continue their work 
even in the depth of winter. Great fires are built around the claim, which 
are kept continually burning. Thus the ground is thawed out for digging 
during the winter months and is made ready for the reappearance of the 
sun and the inflowing of the waters. Then the dirt can be treated in pans 
or long toms. Owing to these peculiar difficulties it is likely that the place 
will continue one for poor man's mining and will be not be monopolized by 
capital."' 

"You advise people to wait until Spring. But don't you think the cream 
of the claims will be skimmed next year?" 

"Not at all. One hundred thousand people might disperse themselves in 
the Yukon gold-bearing grounds and hardly know of the presence of neigh- 
bors. There may be other diggings over this vast area quite as good as the 
Klondyke diggings. As in all the gold mining regions, diggings everywhere 
vary considerably in value. It is not improbable even that the late comers 
will take up the abandoned washings of the earlier men and do well with 
them. This frequently happened in California. As settlements grow up and 
the facilities for comfortable living and effective work increase, it is possible 
that gold may be found in places where it was never dreamed of. There is 
no doubt that eventually a number of valuable ledges will be found, but the 
bulk of the gold will come from placers. This is nature's process for con- 
centrating gold from the quartz ledges. You know, however, what is the 
natural course of development in newly discovered gold fields?" 

"Well, here it is. First come the men wth pans to gather in the riches 
that lie on the surface. It is possible for an active man to wash out a cubic 
yard, or 100 pounds of pay dirt in a day. 

"Next follow associations of miners using 'Long Toms' and cradles. 

"The third stage takes the form of hydraulic mining, by means of water 
brought from long distances. 

"Fourth, and last, comes quartz mining under ground. 

"This is the sequence that has always occurred. But it may take years 
before the final stage is reached in the Yukon, owing to the "diflBcultics 
already pointed out." 



50 THE KLONDYKJE GOLD MINES. 

THE NEW YORK JOURNAL EXPEDITION TO KLONDYKE. 



The New York Journal, in keeping with its usual liberality and enter- 
prise, has sent out a large expedition at its own expense. The Journal says: 

"To investigate the riches of the Yukon gold fields and to tell the tale of 
Nature and human nature in the new ophir of the far North for the Journal, 
a company of five distinguished writers have been sent to the gold fields. 
Edward H. Hamilton, chief of the Journal bureau, is admirably equipped 
for his task. His writings have given him a high repute and his letters 
will discover to the world the life at Klondyke, as well as tell the sordid 
tale of the gains of the diggers. Charles Gregory Yale is one of the prom- 
inent mining experts of the West. For several years he has been statistician 
of the Mint at San Francisco and assistant in the California State Mining 
Bureau. He is a facile writer, having had a long experience as editor of the 
"Mining and Scientific Press," of San Francisco. Edward J. Livernash is a 
lawyer and journalist, a careful investigator and an able descriptive writer. 
Joaquin Miller, the gray poet of the Sierras, will sing for the Journal a new 
song of the St. Elias Alps. Mrs. Norman Brough, known to readers by her 
pen name, "Helen Dare," will have the opportunity to write of a woman's 
experience digging gold in the placers and housekeeping in a sunless land, 
with the thermometer at 60 below zero." 



SAILORS GET GOLD CRAZE. 



DESEET THEIR SHIPS IN ALASKAN PORTS TO DIG FOR FORTUNES. 



The gold fever has struck the hardy mariner at last, and desertions are 
numerous from ships up north. 

Shippers expect 'soon to hear of craft being tied up in Alaskan ports just 
as they were in San Francisco harbor in '49, when crews deserted wholesale 
to dig gold in the rich placers. 

When the steamship Pueblo arrived, Capt. Debney reported that the 
mates of the Al-ki and the Topeka had both left their ships in Juneau. 
Other steamer captains before they left recently said they would be lucky 
if they managed to keep enough men to work ship after they reached the 
northern ports. 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 51 

Capt. Debney says that when the Portland reached St. Michael's on her 
last trip up one of the firemen, who had made friends with some of the 
miners aboard, handed in his resignation and asked for a ticket up the 
Yukon. 

It was refused him on the ground that he was a deserter. He twice of- 
fered money without avail. The miners held the ship for twelve hours. 

At the expiration of that time the company put up a notice that the Port- 
land would start on her return trip at a certain hour. The miners held 
a meeting and appointed a committee of twelve to wait on the company's 
agent. The committee filed into the agent's office, where each man drew 
a revolver and laid it on the agent's table. They demanded that a ticket be 
given the fireman at once, and the agent complied. The fireman went with 
the party up the Yukon. 

Capt. Debney reports that the Queen, which sailed from Puget Sound 
several days ago, passed the American port officials all right, but when the 
vessel reached Victoria the customs officials decided that she was overloaded 
and took fifteen of the miners ashore. They are now stopping at the Vic- 
toria Hotel at the expense of the Pacific Steamship Company, and will 
be sent north on a later vessel. 

Capt Debney has received a letter from his son, who is agent for the 
Alaska Commercial Company at Dawson. He reports that there are now at 
Dawson thirty-five saloons, one theatre, eight dance houses, three general 
stores, five bakeries, five restaurants, two barber shops, one candy maker 
and three laundries. 



ONLY THREE DEATHS IN A YEAR. 



THE HEALTHIEST REGION IN THE WORLD IS THE EiONDYKE. 



F. G. Bowker, of Dawson, says there was nobody there to die until less 
than a year ago, and that since then there have been but three deaths in 
that whole district as far as is known. 

Of the three deaths one occurred just before the steamer Excelsior left 
Dawson. A man who had just sold his claim for $12,000 passed away in his 
bunk with his head resting on the sack of coin which represented the suc- 
cess of his search for wealth. 

In the graveyard at Forty Mile, which has served for all that section for 



52 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

some years past, there are only thirty or forty graves. Few die within reach 
of settlements without medical aid and spiritual advice. 

There are missions of several Protestant denominations, as well as Russian 
and Roman Catholic missions, at frequent intervals throughout the country. 
Funerals are not as ostentatious as in the civilized world, but everything 
that is necessary is reverentially done by rough but kindly miners. 

The tale about confiscation of dead men's effects by friends and neighbors 
is branded as a malicious lie. 

It is one of the unwritten laws of the Yukon that these shall be turned 
over to the Government and disposed of according to statute laws. 



CANADIAN niNlNG LAWS. 



REGULATIONS IMPOSED BY THE DOMINION UPON PLACER 

MINING. 



As the Klondyke diggings, as thus far developed and staked, are upon 
Canadian territory it is important to bear in mind the regulations imposed 
by the Dominion Government on placer mining. They are as follows: 

"Bar diggings" shall mean any part of a river over which the water ex- 
tends when the water is in its flooded state and which is not covered at low 
water. "Mines on benches" shall be known as bench diggings, and shall for 
the purpose of defining the size of such claims be excepted from dry diggings. 
"Dry diggings" shall mean any mine over which a river never extends. 
"Miner" shall mean a male or female over the age of eighteen, but not under 
that age. "Claims" shall mean the personal right of property in a placer 
mine or diggings during the time for which the grant of such mine or dig- 
gings is made. "Legal post" shall mean a stake standing not less than four 
feet above the ground and squared on four sides for at least one foot from 
the top. "Close season" shall mean the period of the year during which 
placer mining is generally suspended. The period to be fixed by the gold 
commissioner in whose district the claim is situated. "Locality" shall mean 
the territory along a river (tributary of the Yukon) and its afiluents. 
"Mineral" shall include all minerals whatsoever other than coal. 

1. Bar diggings. A strip of land 100 feet wide at highwater mark and 
thence extending along the river to its lowest water level. 

2. The sides of a claim for bar diggings shall be two parallel lines run 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 53 

as nearly as possible at right angles to the stream, and shall be marked 
by four legal posts, one at each end of the claim at or about high water 
mark; also one at each end of the claim at or about the edge of the water. 
One of the posts shal be legibly marked with the name of the miner and the 
date upon which the claim is staked. 

3. Dry diggings shall be 100 feet square and shall have placed at each 
of its four corners a legal post, upon one of which shaU be legibly marked 
the name of the miner and the date upon which the claim was staked. 

4. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet long, measured in the direction 
of the mineral course of the stream, and shall extend in width from base to 
base of the hill or bench on each side, but when the hills or benches are 
less than 100 feet apart the claim may be 100 feet in depth. The sides of a 
claim shall be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles 
to the stream. The sides shall be marked with legal posts at or about the 
edge of the water and at the rear boundary of the claim. One of the legal 
posts at the stream shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner 
and the date upon which the claim was staked. 

5. Bench claims shall be 100 feet square. 

6. In defining the size of claims they shall be measured horizontally, 
irrespective of inequalities on the surface of the ground. 

7. If any person or persons shall discover a new mine and such discovery 
shall be established to the satisfaction of the gold commisisoner, a claim for 
the bar diggings 750 feet in length may be granted. A new stratum of au- 
riferous earth or gravel situated in a locality where the claims are abandoned 
shall for this purpose be deemed a new mine, although the same locality 
shall have previously been worked at a different level. 

8. The forms of application for a grant for placer mining and the grant 
of the same shall be according to those made, provided or supplied by the 
gold commisioner. 

9. A claim shall be recorded with the gold commissioner in whose district 
it is situated within three days after the location thereof if it is located 
within ten miles of the commissioner's office. One day extra shall be al- 
lowed for making such record for every additional ten miles and fraction 

thereof. 

10. In the event of the absence of the gold commissioner from his office 
for entry a claim may be granted by any person whom he may appoint to 
perform his duties in his absence. 

11. Entry shall not be granted for a claim which has not been staked 
by the applicant in person in the manner specified in these resolutions. An 
affidavit that the claim was staked out by the applicant shall be embodied in 
the application. 

12. An entry free of $15 shall be charged the first year and an annual 
fee of $100 for each of the following years: 



54 THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

13. After recording a claim the removal of any post by the holder thereof 
or any person acting in his behalf for the purpose of changing the boundaries 
of his claim shall act as a forfeiture of the claim. 

14. The entry of every holder for a grant for placer mining must be re- 
newed and his recipt relinquished and replaced every year, the entry fee 
being paid each year. 

15. No miner shall receive a grant for more than one mining claim in the 
same locality, but the same miner may hold any number of claims by pur- 
chase and any number of miners may unite to work their claims in common 
on such terms as they may arrange, provided such agreement be registered 
with the gold commissioner and a fee of $5 paid for each registration. 

16. Any miner or miners may sell, mortgage or dispose of his or their 
claims provided such disposal be registered with and a fee of $5 paid to the 
gold commissioner, who shall thereupon give the assignee a certificate of his 
title. 

17. Every miner shall during the continuance of his grant have the ex- 
clusive right of entry upon his own claim for the miner-like working thereof 
and the construction of a residence thereon, and shall be entitled exclusively 
to all the proceeds realized therefrom, but he shall have no surface rights 
therein, and the gold commissioner may grant to the holders of adjacent 
claims such rights of entry thereon as may be absolutely necessary for the 
working of their claims upon such terms as may to him seem reasonable. 
He may also grant permits to miners to cut timber thereon for their own 
use upon payment of the dues prescribed by the regulations in that behalf. 

18. Every miner shall be entitled to the use of so much of the water 
naturally flowing through or past his claim and not already lawfully ap- 
propriated, as shall in the opinion of the gold commissioner be necessary for 
the working thereof, and shall be entitled to drain his own claim free of 
charge. 

19. A claim shall be deemed to be abandoned and open to occupation and 
entry by any person when the same shall have remained unworked on work- 
ing days by the grantee thereof or by some person in his behalf for the 
space of seventy-two hours unless sickness or other reasonable cause may be 
sho\\n to the satisfaction of the gold commissioner, or unless the grantee 
is absent on leave given by the commissioner, and the gold commissioner, 
upon obtaining evidence satisfactory to himself that this provision is not 
being complied with, may cancel the entry given for a claim. 

20. If the land upon which a claim has been located is not the property 
of the Crown it will be necessary for the person who applies for entry to 
furnish proof that he has acquired from the owner of the land the surface 
right before entry can be granted. 

21. If the occupier of the lands has not received a patent thereof the 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 65 

purchase money of the surface rights must be paid to the Crown and a 
patent of the surface rights will issue to the party who acquired the mining 
rights. The money so collected will either be refunded to the occupier of 
the land when he is entitled to a patent there or will be credited to him 
on account of payment of land. 

22. When the party obtaining the mining rights cannot make an ar- 
rangement with the owner thereof for the acquisition of the surface rights 
it shall be lawful for him to give notice to the owner or his agents or the 
occupier to appoint an arbitrator to act with another arbitrator named by 
him in order to award the amount of compensation to which the owner or 
occupier shall be entitled. 



SOME THINGS WORTH KNOWING. 



Some of the miners wlio have recently returned from the mines say that 
those who wait until the Spring before going to Alaska will make a mis- 
take, as there is room on the Yukon and around Dawson City for 5,000 
miners. During the Winter months they can occupy themselves taking out 
the frozen earth, and thus have it ready for washing in the Summer. 



The most trustworthy estimates agree that over $5,000,000, in nuggets 
and gold dust has been the value of the output of the Alaska mines during 
the year. 

It is estimated by many that in the mines already being worked on the 
Klondyke alone there is over $50,000,000 worth of gold in sight, and that 
this will all be mined in a year. 



A new field, rich in gold, and that has not yet been worked, has been 
discovered near the mouth of the Tananar River, which is a tributary of the 
Yukon, and is the second largest river in Alaska. 



There is hardly any darkness in Alaska in the Summer season. One can 
see to read at 10 o'clock at night and at 2 in the morning. 



Both the Chilkoot and White Passes are practically on the boundary be 



56 ~ THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 

tween the United States and Canadian territories. They are in the same 
latitude and are only twenty or thirty miles apart. After reaching the 
head of navigation, the Juneau parties bound for the Yukon turn west 
through the mountains by Chilkoot Pass. If they used the White Pass they 
would turn east and circumvent the mountain on the east side. The White 
Pass has not been utilized by mining parties, the Cliilkoot being the \isual 
route, and the Chilkat Pass, further north, being used to a much less 
extent. 



There is no abatement of the Klondyke fever in Seattle, and it appears to 
be extending all over the Northwest. Hundreds are being liberally grub- 
staked and experienced miners are in active demand. From $500 to $600 is 
given tliem and they share half their finds. 



The first mining company to file articles of incorporation is the Alaska and 
Yukon Exploration and Trading Company, Limited. The capital stock is 
$200,000, fully subscribed. 



Every claim within miles of the Klondyke is taken up, and nearly 5,000 
people are at the new diggings. Those who got in late have gone further 
to the northeast of the Klondyke, looking for new locations, and the matter 
of hunting gold in Alaska has resolved itself into a proposition of finding a 
mother lode and new pockets. 



There is an enormous demand for miners' outfits in Seattle and in San 
Francisco, and the outfitters' employees are working night and day. 



It is believed that it will take all the steamers and idle sailing vessels 
on the Pacific coast, from San Francisco to Seattle, to carry the gold-seek- 
ers now preparing to start for the new Eldorado of the Northwest, and 
thousands will be forced reluctantly to wait until next spring, owing to 
lack of transportation facilities. 



The steamship people are amazed at the number of "tenderfeet" who 
have been struck by the craze. There has never been anything equal to it, 
they say, and the end is not yet. The cashier of the Alaska Company says 
that if they had sufficient boats on hand there would be, in his opinion, at 
least 20,000 people go up the Yukon this fall. There are not enough pro- 
visions now in Dawson to feed those already there, and only a limited sup- 
ply can be transported there before the winter blockade begins. 



An outfitting firm in Seattle received a cablegram from London, Eng- 
land, asking if 5,000 men could be outfitted there. 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 57 

Tlie Alaskan and British American gold field fever has struck Texas. 
Reports from many places indicate preparations for a rush to the 
Northwest. Inquiries are being made at every railroad office concerning 
routes and rates of transportation. 



A pinch of gold dust pays for a drink in Dawson City. As the bar- 
keeper takes the pinch out of the miner's bag barkeepers with broad 
thumbs receive tlie highest wages. 



Perhaps the most interesting reading in the Mining Record is the letters 
written by men in the Klondyke to friends in Juneau. Here is one from 
"Casey" Moran: 

Dawson, March 20, 1897. 

"Friend George: Don't pay any attention to what any one says, but 
come in at your earliest opportunity. My God! It is appalling to hear 
the truth, but nevertheless the world has never produced its equal before. 
Well, come. Thafs all. Your friend. "CASEY." 



If you don"t start for the Pacific coast for the mines before tlie 1st of 
September, do not start until the 15th of next April. 



May, June and July are the months in which work with pan and cradle 
can be done. During the rest of the year king frost reigns. 



The Klondyke mean temperature is: Spring, 14 degrees above zero; Sum- 
mer, oil abo\e zero: Autumn, 17 above zero; \\Mnter, 30 below zero. There 
are, of course, extremes above and below these figures. 



To }i(il(l a claim tinee months" work annually must be done on it. In 
default of this tlic laud reverts to the Government. 



The laws of Canada are severe on claJMi jumpers and on (linso who inter- 
fere with the rights of legitimate claimants. 



58 IIIK KLOXUYKE GOLD MINES. 



EXPLANATORY AND IflPORTANT. 



Tlie ]\lining News Publishing Company was formed for the purpose of 
furnif^hing reliable information regarding the Alaska gold fields to all who 
may be interested. 

This book, "All About the Klondyke," is the first of a series to be issued 
as fast as news is received and mines are developed. 

Reliable correspondents, now in the mines, will keep us infoiined regarding 
all matters of interest, and everything of importance tliat is publislied any- 
where regarding mining or the Alaska gold field will be verified and pub- 
lished for the benefit of our patrons. 

Bogus companies and fraudulent syndicates will be investigated and, 
when necessary, exposed and warning given to the public regarding them. 

There are already in the field more than one "syndicate" or "company" 
formed by impecunious and irresponsible persons whose object is to sell 
shares in mines, or stock in enterprises, that promise to carry men to the 
mines and to furnish them with outfits and claims on payment of certtiiu 
specified sums. 

The standing and character of all companies and syndicates should be 
carefully investigated before any one intrusts money to them. 

The exodus to the mines must cease in August owing to the impossibility 
of reaching the gold fields during the Alaskan cold season, and after August 
no one will sail for Alaskan ports until about the 15th of April next. 

There is, therefore, plenty of time for intending prospectors and miners to 
inform themselves thoroughly regarding everything necessary to know 
about tlie mines, routes of travel, outfit, etc., and for investors, who are not 
going to the mines, to satisfy themselves regarding the reliability of the 
mining companies that are and will be advertising their alluring and seduc- 
tive money-making schemes. 

There are some companies, now formed and forming, that agree to furnish 
outfit, transportation and food to those who will contract to mine on shares 
wlion they reach the mines. There are others that ofi"er opportunitj' to in- 
dividuals and to clubs of men — ten or more — who will subscribe from $600 
to $1,000, to benefit in one-half of the profits, and who agree to have a sub- 
stitute sent to represent the individvurl or club subscribers. These are legiti- 
mate and reliable and much profit nny come to those who invest with 
tlieiu. 

The Mining News Publishing Company has no financial or other interest 
or connection with any mining Company or Syndicate and is, therefore, in 
a position to give unbiased and reliable advice regarding any of them. Its 



THE KLONDYKE GOLD MINES. 69 

purpose — besides tlic publishing of news— is to protect, warn ami advise 
tlie public. 

We will furnish any one with the prospectus of companies that are safe 
and solvent, and that we know to be worthy and financially strong. Ten 
cents in stamps should be sent when inquiring for such a prospectus, cither 
of a ^Mining Company selling shares, or of a grub-stake or outfitting syndi- 
cate. 

Correspondents who desire confidential advice regarding any company or 
syndicate will receive the best information at our command. A fee of $1 
will be charged for answering such letters. 

Improvements in means of transportation, routes and trails to the mines 
will go on from time to time. Changes in cost of provisions and mining 
supplies, and in modes of mining will take place. Eegarding all this we 
shall be promptly infornicd and will, at all times, bo in posst^ssion of the 
latest information. 

Questions regarding routes, cost of outfit, transportation, or regarding any 
otiier matter connected w itli mining or the mines, w ill be answered by letter, 
written by experienced miners in our employ here, for a fee of $1 enclosed 
w ith each query. 

Address "The IMining Xews Publisliing Company, 00 Liberty Street, New 
York." 



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